Manchester Field is the Preuss School’s multipurpose field, mainly used for sports and physical education classes. Additionally, it makes up a big part of our campus, and whenever people come to our school, it captures their attention. Lately, the field itself has been looking quite rough and unhealthy. It has patches of dry grass, and the unstable ground makes it hard for sports. Because Manchester Field is a big part of our campus, it should be better taken care of in order to keep it optimal for sports and to keep the grass looking green and healthy.
Soccer season will soon begin, and in order for players to be able to perform at their best, the field needs to be properly maintained and level. The field contains many bumps, and although they may not be that big, for someone like the goalkeeper who needs to make split second reactions, it could be the difference between saving and getting scored on. If the ball bounces randomly due to a bump on the ground, it could cause the goalkeeper to get confused and not be able to predict the trajectory of the ball. Other positions could also get misdirected because of those bumps leading to an opportunity being lost. For example, a bump could ultimately cause the ball to go a different direction and this could cause the forward to get confused and mess up their dribbling and not be able to go through the defensive line, which is their whole purpose.
The two sports at Preuss that require the field majority of the time are lacrosse and soccer. These two sports use cleats which dig into the ground so that players don’t slip and to optimize their movements. If the field is not properly seeded, it ultimately leads to not enough grass on the field, which then causes the cleats to be able to dig in less to the ground. This causes problems for athletes since both lacrosse and soccer require changing directions quickly and without proper traction, slippage can occur and ruin a play.
Lastly, Manchester field makes up a big part of our campus and whenever someone walks past Preuss or actually comes inside, the field captures their attention. If the field doesn’t look good, it can make people think that we don’t take care of our field at all or even care about sports for that matter. Proper maintenance and reseeding of the field is necessary to solve this issue.
Currently, UCSD takes care of our field. They water it once per week which might not be enough since there are a lot of areas where there is no grass at all. Watering the field an extra day until the field becomes healthy again could solve this issue. Although it could be argued that this would use up more water and might end up costing more, it is important to keep the field looking healthy so that we can keep a professional environment here.
Manchester Field is a really big part of the Preuss campus and keeping it properly maintained is necessary. If we don’t keep it properly maintained, it can cause us to look bad and can hinder the performance of our athletes.
