Ready to Level the Playing Field

Stone Field doesn’t look like much. It’s a blend of rock and dirt, broken by gopher holes. It is littered with candy wrappers and broken bottles. Here and there, grass pokes through.

“You get a lot of scrapes, bruises and sprained ankles playing here,” said 9-year-old Jose Monroy, a midfielder for the Cruz Azul Soccer Club. “But we don’t care. At least we have a place to play.”

Until recently, few people in history-rich San Juan Capistrano seemed to care about the state of 62-year-old Stone Field, or the 350 members of the San Juan Youth Soccer League who use it nearly every day.

The field, once used for baseball and occasional bonfires by students at the old Capistrano Union High School, has been neglected for at least 15 years. Capistrano Union is now a continuation school and the field has fallen on hard times.

“It’s gotten a little tired,” said San Juan Capistrano Councilman David M. Swerdlin. “It’s showing its age.”

To some who live in Las Villas--a community made up mostly of apartments around the corner from the city’s historic mission--the condition of Stone Field has been a source of frustration. While new parks have sprung up in town, Stone Field has remained unchanged. Some in the local community say they have been neglected. Others blame themselves for not speaking up and insisting that the rutted field be renovated.

Ruth Lobo is among those bothered by the park’s condition. Her father, Alfonso, helped lay the river rock that rings the field. The field is also a concern to Juan Pena, founder of the 4-year-old youth soccer league that plays there. Over the years, the soccer coach said he felt helpless to do anything about it.

“We have tried to keep it up ourselves,” Pena said. “We put the seed on it. We try to keep it level. We bought everything with our own money. What we did was not enough.”

Last year, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center’s charitable arm concluded that a recreation facility was a top priority for residents in Las Villas. The community borders Stone Field on the northwest side of town.

The hospital donated $190,000 to help fix up the field. The city agreed to add $127,000, and then helped secure $295,000 in state funding. In all, more than $600,000 has been raised.

But even that might not be enough to resurface the field, install new irrigation and drainage systems and rebuild the crumbling stone bleachers. Volunteers who have agreed to help keep up the field also want to convert an old garage into restrooms and maybe some office space. They would like a picnic area and perhaps an entryway.

The two-month project was scheduled to begin in early November, but construction bids were higher than expected and the repair job has been delayed a few weeks.

Joe Mankawich, a city engineer, said San Juan Capistrano officials have long known that Stone Field needed repair.

Swerdlin said: “We had Stone Field on our list for a while, but there are a number of priorities the city had before this. It would be nice if everyone’s needs could be met immediately. Unfortunately, the city doesn’t have a tax base for that.”

One of the earlier priorities was building the city’s sports park on the opposite side of town six years ago. “That’s a city park, and it’s open to every resident,” Mankawich said.

But Las Villas residents say the four well-manicured fields at the sports park complex are inconvenient to them, especially for those who don’t drive. The new fields also are used by the American Youth Soccer Organization, which charges about $75 per child. Their own San Juan Youth League charges half that.

In contrast, Stone Field is a five-minute walk from Las Villas. Residents say they enjoy its proximity and take comfort in its stone walls, crumbling or not.

“This field is the most important tool for this community to keep these kids off the street,” said Miguel Almanza, the soccer league’s president. “A lot of these kids have changed their attitudes since they started playing here.”

Almanza is frustrated that the city didn’t help fix up the field earlier.

But he says the Latino community, which accounts for 35% of San Juan Capistrano’s population, is partly to blame.

“Historically, our community is shy, calm and very quiet,” he said. “But this time we raised our voices and told the city we need help and we need you to work with us. This time, they listened. I hope they continue to listen.”

Swerdlin, instrumental in persuading the City Council to recondition the field in one sweep rather than gradually, believes officials will.

“I see this renovation as the start of a new inclusive policy with the Latino community,” he said.

Lobo, whose ancestor helped build the mission, sees the field as a link to the past. A student at Capistrano Union High in the early 1960s, Lobo remembers Stone Field as the site for the Laguna bonfire, held the night before the school’s big football game against archrival Laguna Beach.

“They just don’t build parks like this anymore, with stone bleachers and with that enclosed feeling,” Lobo said. “It hasn’t been kept up for some time. But just so long as it was there, it made you feel good.”

Residents say they will feel even better once the field is renovated.

“A nicer field will be better for all of us,” said Monroy, the 9-year-old soccer player. “It’ll be nice to come home without the cuts and scrapes.”