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| Needed: grass-roots effort |
- TOM WHEATLEY
Of the
Post-Dispatch
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
|
- October 21, 2004
- Section: Sports
|
- Edition: Five Star Late Lift
- Page B01
|
The nearly 500 boys who play high school football in
the Public High League are hurt each day by the facilities gap
between the PHL and every other school in the metro area. Only
three of the eight PHL football teams have game fields on
campus. Others lack even a practice field. The fields that do
exist are in poor shape, the result of years of overuse,
broken watering systems and practically non-existent
maintenance programs.
Is there a solution? There is, but it would cost $40,000.
That's what Tom Monaghan estimates it would take to
"resurrect" the grim playing surfaces in the PHL's four
stadiums. Monaghan is the district manager for SODEXHO, a
France-based company hired late last year to maintain all
buildings and grounds for the St. Louis Public School System.
A newcomer from Memphis, he's dismayed by the sight of the
district's four football stadiums -- at Gateway Tech,
Roosevelt, Soldan and the old Southwest High. He commissioned
a study that was completed after this season began. It
concluded that the fields could be revived after the season
for about $10,000 each. The work on each field would start
with a proper crown. That is, the surface would be graded
evenly to form a peak running the length of the field,
gradually sloping toward each sideline. Properly crowned
fields promote sure footing and good drainage. "These fields
don't have a crown," Monaghan said. "They have a bowl." After
being crowned, the fields would be fertilized and seeded with
resilient grass. That would replace the scrub growth that
wears away into dust by season's end and returns in the
spring. The fix-up price also includes new or repaired
watering systems, which have been idle for a year or more at
each field, plus regular maintenance and grooming. The stadium
fields get scant attention now except lining the surface for
games and occasional mowing of whatever happens to be growing.
The rebuilt fields still would face a brutal workload. All
four usually host games every Thursday through Saturday, plus
daily practices at every field but Southwest. Monaghan thinks
the new grass would take that pounding. "You can do miracles
with turf now," he said. It may take a miracle to get the
seeds planted. At the root of the problem is money. As
Monaghan said after outlining his plan, "Hopefully I can get
the district to fund it." The issue runs beyond $40,000,
because the facilities gap stretches far beyond the stadium
fields. Locker rooms, rest rooms, concession booths and
bleachers are sub-par at best. Also, the PHL's five football
schools without stadiums also practice on grim fields --
Beaumont and Cleveland on campus, and Career Academy, Sumner
and Vashon off campus. "The school district really
needs to decide," Monaghan said. "Do they want to spend money
to have a football program, or do they want to eliminate
football completely?" "Ignored the problem" Facilities are
only part of the PHL football crisis. All eight
football-playing schools have harsh shortages in equipment and
staffing. "What I see is that somewhere along the line,
somebody made a decision to divert funds away from athletics,"
Monaghan said. "I don't know why. That's what I see with all
the buildings in the district, too. People here for years have
just ignored the problem. "Now you've got a crisis, and
everybody wants everything fixed. The reality is, can the
school system afford it?" Last spring, the school district
considered dropping athletics as a last resort. The regime of
superintendent William V. Roberti eventually backed off but
slashed funding. For example, each of the 10 high schools --
including Metro and Visual & Performing Arts, which have
no football teams -- has a $5,000 annual budget for sports
equipment and uniforms -- for both girls and boys. Just five
years ago, the budget for each school was approximately
$20,000. Roberti's scheduled one-year term ended after the
last school term. Floyd Crues, a veteran city schools
official, was named interim superintendent. He is gung-ho
about the value of athletics. "We need to upgrade not only our
facilities," Crues said, "but our entire athletic program.
Athletics and the arts are very important to the
mental-physical development of the whole child. They teach
children about leadership, decision-making, teamwork. That's
all part of their development as people." One of his first
acts as interim superintendent was to form a six-member task
force to study the plight of PHL players and coaches. "They
have a champion for the cause in the city now," Crues said.
"Everything I can possibly do, as long as I sit in this chair,
I'm going to get done." Unfortunately for the PHL cause, Crues
may not be seated long enough to hear from his task force. The
school board has a task force of its own searching for a
permanent superintendent. Even if the nominee is Crues or
another pro-sports advocate, closing the facilities gap will
be a tough go. Learning from Memphis
Six years ago, the school district in Memphis, Tenn.,
hired Wayne Weedon as director of athletics. He brought a
marketing background and personal flair to the job. His
department oversees 29 high schools, 25 middle schools and
four junior high schools. They share 10 lighted stadiums in
top shape, with crowds reaching 10,000 for standing-room
showdowns. The Memphis schools play football games from Monday
through Friday, with Saturday reserved for Junior Football
League games. Compare that flourishing operation to the PHL.
Crowds of 100 are the norm on the four fields. No junior high
or middle school football programs exist. In Memphis, Weedon's
office has tapped corporate sponsors for expenses large and
small. It also has a strong bond with pro athletes from
Memphis, such as basketball players Penny Hardaway and
Lorenzen Wright, who are helping the public schools. Weedon's
staff features an assistant director, a secretary, a head
trainer, two assistant trainers and a facilities manager with
his nine-member staff. Weedon also has a part-time staff of
100 workers for football games to run the scoreboard, work the
chains and take tickets. Memphis also hires a paramedic for
each game. The PHL has one athletics trainer on hand for its
rugged playing fields, and help can take a long time arriving
in case of serious injuries. "That is our biggest concern,"
Clayton athletics director Rich Grawer said. "We played Soldan
at Gateway early this year, and one of the Soldan players got
hurt. He was lying motionless on the field. Our trainer was
there, but it took quite a while for the ambulance to come and
get him." When Weedon heard that, he offered this tip to PHL
officials in their campaign for funding. "That's something you
can hang your hat on there: Safety and liability," Weedon
said. "You've got to provide a safe environment and proper
equipment. You can go a long ways when you start talking about
the safety of a student and the liability of a district to
lawsuits." "Remember that old Fram oil filter commercial: 'Pay
me now or pay me later.' Well, we would rather pay now." In
the PHL, which offers football in only eight high schools--
compared to 58 schools at three levels in Memphis -- a single
supersized stadium might be the best plan. Crues and PHL
coordinator of athletics Dave Cook favor this approach, having
both played in the old Public Schools Field, otherwise known
as City Stadium. Despite lacking lights, City Stadium was used
for daylong track meets as well as football games on the
weekend. It closed in the late 1960s, a casualty of growing
racial tension. Remodeling Gateway Tech If a new stadium can't
be funded, the obvious remodeling choice is Gateway Tech, the
PHL's largest, most accessible and only lighted stadium.
"Gateway is a perfect candidate for one of these new
artificial turfs," said Clayton's Grawer, whose football team
plays at least one PHL team each year. Grawer is up on the
issue, because his district just voted to install artificial
turf. He said an excellent surface costs about $400,000. "You
can get a seven- or eight-year guarantee," Grawer said. "And
after five or six years, it can pay for itself. You pay
nothing for water, maintenance, cutting the grass, fertilizing
or striping it. Plus, your maintenance people can be somewhere
else instead of at the stadium. "And if they had a field like
that, they could make money. They could rent it out to other
teams or groups in the community." With public funds so hard
to come by, a major stadium project almost certainly would
need corporate or private bankrolling. NFL to the rescue?
As it turns out, the PHL is tailor-made for a rescue
operation that is eager to help. The National Football League
Grassroots Football Program is available to build or upgrade
football fields in low-income areas of each NFL city. Each NFL
team runs the program in its hometown. The Rams official in
charge here is Michael Yarbrough. He said funding basically
comes in three levels: $50,000 and $100,000 for conventional
work and $200,000 mainly for new artificial surfaces. The
application deadline each year is Aug. 31. And some strong
strings are attached. These are matching funds, so an equal
amount must be raised by the applicant. In the case of high
schools, a nonprofit group must be a partner. The upgraded
field must be open for some community use, such Junior
Football League play. Also, a five-year maintenance program
must be in place. The Rams have yet to receive a proposal from
anyone in the metro area. Cook tried to get his bosses to
apply this year. "But somebody would be working on it," Cook
said, "and all of a sudden they're no longer around. We had
all that turmoil last year, with people being fired and laid
off. Every time I checked on it, the guy I was looking at the
last time was gone." The grants are available for more than
one field in a school district. Cook hoped for at least a
$50,000 award to light Soldan or get a practice field for the
new Vashon campus. Apparently nobody is at work on the
application now. Lack of facilities, staffing and materials
means that many employees district-wide -- from coaches to
custodians, from athletics directors to administrators -- are
bogged down in daily survival tasks. Cook and his campus ADs
seem to have little time or energy for long-range planning.
Cook has one assistant. The ADs have none and, like Cook, have
no secretaries. Some, like Sam Dunlap at Roosevelt, have no
direct phone line. Getting help
Working through the system is an exercise in
frustration. Cook said he reported the non-working sprinklers
to the district's department of buildings of grounds, which
oversees the SODEXH* operation. But Monaghan, the SODEXH*
manager, said he never learned of the sprinkler problem until
a reporter recently called. Monaghan jumped on the problem,
getting workers to begin looking at the sprinkler systems.
Inquiries about two other matters also prompted action. After
Crues was told by the Post-Dispatch that the 90 Vashon
players were sharing helmets, pads and practice clothes, the
team's long-delayed equipment shipment arrived within a week.
And Monaghan, after learning that the new pool at
Vashon was standing empty after twice flooding the new
gym floor, promptly investigated. He reported the next day
that the year-old building had no runoff trench or drain in
the pool, an oversight workers were correcting immediately.
Outsiders seem to have the best luck with improvements in the
PHL. Earlier this year, former PHL star Demetrious Johnson was
at Soldan on behalf of his charitable foundation. Johnson, who
starred for McKinley High, Mizzou and the Detroit Lions, was
shocked when he walked into the stadium. "It was deplorable,"
said Johnson. "You wouldn't want an animal to play in those
conditions. I got really upset." The stadium was overgrown and
covered with trash. The field was unmowed, rock hard and
lumpy. Wooden bleachers seats were dilapidated and the
sideline benches too broken to use. "This was on a Friday,"
Johnson said. "I called my buddy, Gary Bess from the city
Parks Department, and he said he'd take a look. On Monday, he
came out with me and said, 'I can't believe kids are playing
on this.' "Our agreement was that his guys would cut the grass
and clean up the stuff growing through the fence and to do the
home side of the bleachers, if Soldan supplied the wood. "On
Tuesday, Gary sent all these trucks and guys out there and
they got everything fixed up. It was unbelievable." Shortly
afterward, Johnson ran into Manny Silva, the district's
supervisor for buildings and grounds. SODEXH* is under Silva's
wing. "Manny actually said to me, 'How did you get Soldan
cleaned up like that?'" Johnson recalled. "I mean, come on. In
less than 24 hours, from Monday to Tuesday, because of Gary
Bess, I got Soldan looking better than it had in 15 years.
"And it didn't cost me a dime, just walking in off the street.
My question is, why can't the district get that done?" Silva
was the only district or PHL employee unavailable for this
story, despite numerous requests for an interview left with
his secretary and on his voice mail. Meanwhile, Johnson
submitted a plan to restructure the entire PHL athletics
department. "That was a couple of years ago," said Johnson, a
national sales manager for Tyco, the world's second-largest
medical manufacturing company. He outlined his many contacts
in sports, business and sports businesses, such as equipment
suppliers. "Then the new board came in," Johnson said, "and I
never heard back from anyone." Since then, money has gotten
even tighter in the district. And the facilities gap keeps
widening.
Photos by KEVIN MANNING / POST-DISPATCH (1) CURB APPEAL IS
LACKING - The practice field in front of Cleveland Junior
Naval Academy is an uninviting stretch of sand and weeds. But
Cleveland players are more fortunate than some -- they don't
have to walk to a practice field. (2) NOT A DAY AT THE BEACH -
Cleveland student Freddie Brown stretches in the sand that
makes up part of the practice field at the school. Cleveland
is one of eight schools in the Public High League that compete
in football. (3) CRAMPED QUARTERS - Beaumont High players Tim
Binion (53), Mouhammad Harris (35) and Quiton Thomas remove
their gear in the team's antiquated locker room. The two
whirlpools can't be used. (4) KEEP OFF THE GRASS - Soldan High
practices on a dusty field in its old stadium across the
street from the school on Union Boulevard. (5) PROBLEM AREA -
A decaying blocking bag and a padless blocking sled are
typical of the poor equipment at Beaumont and other Public
High League schools.
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