Moncton High School’s sports field, where the high school football team practices, is literally coming up short — about 20 yards too short.
According to Ted Kogler, whose son plays on the team, the practice field is about 20 yards shorter than a regulation football field.
“I am a little disappointed. A brand new school, this is the 21st century, and that brand new field could have been built 100 years ago,” Kogler said.
“You need more width to practice your defense or more width to practice your offence. There is no end zones here, so they can’t practice any of that.”
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Harry Doyle, who sits on the District Education Council, thinks the inconvenient sizing is “a mistake” and it should be fixed.
“There are not even any goal posts here for the kids to practice their kicking,” Doyle said.
Doyle says it’s not just the practices that are hindered by the smaller field — without a proper playing field, the football team is forced to play their games a 20-minute drive away from the newly built school.
“We are here, well out of the city, and one of the selling points on this to start with is that we would have room for sports fields and outdoor activities, and I don’t think we’ve got that,” Doyle said.
Tony Weber, director of educational facilities and pupil transportation for the Department of Education, says the field meets the standard specifications for all new multi-use school sports fields built in the province.
“I understand that this field, as it is designed, is not designed as a football field, and that in order to play a regulation game you are required to be on a different field. But it is not within our norms and standards to construct that at schools,” said Weber.
“I would say to them then that the specs are wrong because kids in New Brunswick play Canadian football and this does not even meet the standards of Canadian football,” Doyle said in response to Weber.
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According to the Anglophone East School District, expanding the field would cost at least $250,000. A fully-functioning playing field with bleachers would cost more than $400,000 — money the province and school district say isn’t in their budgets.
But concerned parents like Kogler say costs should be secondary to safety. He says at minimum, the practice field should be expanded before someone gets hurt, adding that the fence surrounding the field is too close to the sidelines and a player could get hurt practicing. He also says much of the field is not covered in grass, but dirt.
Doyle plans to meet with the district and the province to come up with a game plan to fix the field.
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