MOORPARK : Stadium Field Getting New Drainage System

Moorpark College officials may have figured out a way to drain the grass field at the campus’ Griffin Stadium without draining the school’s bank account.

Volunteers have been busy installing a new drainage system below the stadium field.

“We have the field half open,” said football Coach Jim Bittner, whose team plays on the field. “Now we need people to come in and help with wheelbarrow work, moving dirt out and moving sand in.”

Bittner said he expects the field to be ready for use by mid-August.

The project will cost about $5,000 in materials, Bittner said.

Since it opened 25 years ago, Griffin Stadium has had a drainage system bordering the field. There have been problems with that system in the past, Bittner said, but the need for an updated system became obvious during last winter’s heavy rains.

“We just about lost the field,” Bittner said. He pointed to a game between Newbury Park High School and Royal High of Simi Valley that was played during a heavy rainstorm.

“We had to bring rollers in the next day. We worked on the field all day just to get it into some type of shape to play on,” he said. “It was chewed up. I mean, it was a disaster.”

School officials priced a new field at about $250,000. “It just made sense to bring in a new drainage system,” which will hook up with the existing one, he said.

Bittner is looking for volunteers to help with dirt moving from 4 to 8 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.