To the Editor:
I want to express my gratitude to the people who are working tirelessly to make MV@Play’s “Fields of Dreams” come true. I understand that there is always resistance to change, and I am sympathetic toward those who have not fully grasped what a gift this is to the community.
I have played sports for 11 out of the 12 seasons available over my high school career. I love sports, and want to share my perspective. Our student athletes work incredibly hard, and I believe that this community would benefit from a state-of-the-art facility that showcases their hard work. The facility would provide a central meeting ground for the Island, with access for everyone from mini-kickers to the varsity football team, captain’s practices, pickup games, summer leagues, and other groups.
I have found that participating in sports had all the wonderful impacts people said it would on my life — from finding a sense of belonging among teammates to learning to become a respectful adult and figuring out what motivates and encourages people. There is something about the muscle aches, the grueling field hockey hell-week mornings, and the hours spent on the bus together that has brought me some of my closest friends at this point in my life. My coaches are my mentors, I consider my field hockey coach family, and my lacrosse coach actually happens to be family. I love everything that encompasses my time on these fields, other than the actual fields themselves.
I suspect that those opposed to turf fields have not spent the amount of time, if any time at all, on the high school fields that our student athletes use. We hosted a state tournament game last week and we could not even see our lines. It does not instill a sense of pride when the officials and visiting team ask where to stand on a free position because our field has just worn away to dirt. Our field hockey team is quite good, but you wouldn’t think so, looking at the dirt patch that our dedicated players call their home field.
Opponents of turf say they are worried about safety, but do they not realize what facilities they are talking about. Our only track is condemned; it is physically not safe enough for people to run on it, and we will not have a track team next year unless we pay for another new surface.
I am so in favor of the turf fields for our athletes, because I have played on them every weekend for the past four years. If not to an MVRHS game, the weekends of my freshman, sophomore, and junior years were dedicated to Mass Elite, a rigorous girls club lacrosse team. This team has provided opportunities I am so grateful for, one of which is being able to have played hundreds of hours of lacrosse on turf fields all over the East Coast. I have seen the wear and tear these fields are put through as literally thousands of girls use them every day, and their lines are sharp and the fields are drained, regardless of the weather, the very next day.
Every college I have ever played at has a turf field. It is what is expected at the next level of play, because athletes prefer it, even to a well-maintained grass field. It gives more, it feels better on your joints and body as a whole, and it provides an even playing surface without holes and sprinkler heads to roll an ankle in. Turf fields drain properly, so your game is not played in a mud puddle where girls tear ACLs or collide into each other, or called off because of weather or field conditions, which often happens at MVRHS. They can be played on every day, and even more hours when lit, and have the ability to sustain so much activity that they would be accessible to our entire community.
I understand that if we had the money, time, and resources to support well-maintained and safe grass fields, many of you would pick that, even though the majority of athletes would not. But this is not an option, and even if it were, the best-maintained grass fields still cannot hold up to the playing standards of turf.
I have found growing up here for the past 14 years that every member of this community wants to support and see those around them thrive, and I encourage you to stand with this project because it will help hundreds of Islanders do just that. It is a matter of safety, of pride for our school, and of the potential of our athletic community here on this Island. So, for those of you who are still in opposition, I invite you to go walk around our condemned track and our worn fields, and then reconsider what you want your athletes to call home.
Lee Hayman
Edgartown