NORWALK, Conn. – A cadre of Brien McMahon High School coaches and athletes made their way to City Hall on Wednesday to send a message – please, turf our field.
“Would you want your kids to play in this field? I mean, continuously there’s injuries. The problem you have is there’s no chance for grass to come back because it’s being overused, that’s why we need turf and we need it as soon as possible,” BMHS Athletic Director Joe Maddafari told Planning Commission members in the community room, after handing them photographs of what is called “the pit.”
The proposal to replace the artificial turf at BMHS’ Jack Casagrande Field at a cost of $500,000 is recommended for funding in the 2015-16 capital budget by Finance Director Tom Hamilton, but the request to spend $1.1 million to put turf on the baseball field and practice soccer field is not. About 25 people, many of them teenagers, attended Wednesday’s public hearing on the capital budget to support spending the money on the field; five adult athletic speakers addressed the commission, as well as the Brien McMahon baseball team’s captain, Edwin Owolo.
“It’s an investment for the ages and it will not only just affect our program but our whole community,” the graduating senior said.
“That field is not a really great place to play,” Owolo’s coach, John Cross, said. “When you go down for a routine ground ball or a line drive, that ball can ricochet. It can ricochet and hit you in the head or it can change an outcome of the game. I’ve been on the winning side a couple of times, I’ve been on the losing side as well. If you guys have ever been there, your child is on the field and you lose a game because of an errant hop, a bad hop, it’s kind of disappointing, not to mention that when we do get a lot of rainouts because the fields can’t be kept up.”
While the neighbors complain about dust from the fields at times, when it rains there are puddles that attract geese and the resultant droppings that get on uniforms and shoes, he said.
“It’s disappointing when it rains at night and then you go to school and it’s bright and sunny and you can’t go outside and practice that afternoon just because of the fact there’s puddles on that particular field and in the outfield as well,” Cross said.
BMHS head football coach A.J. Albano said Norwalk kids are at a disadvantage – all the kids, from kindergarten to grade 12 – because of the condition of the field.
His football team practices in “the pit” two or three times a week and have to move around the field because of all the dust that gets kicked up.
Josh Lander of Norwalk Babe Ruth said there are only four full-sized baseball fields in Norwalk.
“We have at any given time 12 teams playing and we play other towns, and we have an extreme shortage of fields. The fact that McMahon is in such bad shape regardless of what parks and rec does when it rains the night before we often lost the entire weekend because the field can’t take the rain. … A turf field would immensely help us with our scheduling,” Lander said.
Recreation and Parks Department Director Mike Mocciae said his goal is to take Norwalk’s key fields and convert them to turf.
“We can’t keep up with McMahon,” he said. “The main field, as Joe Maddafari just stated, is past its life expectancy.”
After the hearing, Owolo said the field’s outfield is “terrible.”
“The infield is manageable but in the outfield … that ball is liable to go anywhere once it hits the ground. That can affect the outcome of any game,” said Owolo, who plans to study neuroscience at Harvard.
“It’s a legacy that we’re leaving behind,” Owolo said. “It’s not just about me, about the team we have now, but the team we have down the road 10, 20 years from now and we need to build and improve from where we are right now. I think turfing the field is a pivotal part in that goal.”
The Planning Commission plans to take action on the 2015-16 capital budget next Tuesday. It will accept written comments through 3 p.m. Friday. Comments can be sent to mgreene@norwalkct.org.
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