City’s Having a Field Day Over Its New Green

More than 500 mostly Latino residents of San Juan Capistrano showed up at Stone Field on Sunday, surprised to see that the once-scroungy playing area--so full of rocks that their children often got hurt--was a flat swath of soft, green grass.

“It looks so good, it’s hard to believe it’s real,” said Heliodoro Ortiz, whose 8-year-old son was among the many young soccer players christening the playing field.

Swarms of boys and girls joined soccer clinics run by local coaches with help from Los Angeles Galaxy forward Isaias “Chi” Bardales and Andrew Kartunen, goalkeeper for the U.S. Soccer Federation under-18 team. While they played, adults were treated to a variety of tamales donated by 12 area restaurants.

The renovation of the city’s Stone Field, built during the Depression in the shadow of the city’s historic mission and used by about 1,200 soccer players a week, was seen as a welcome recognition of the growing Latino influence in this southern Orange County city.

City officials said they were pleased to work with the Latino community on the project. On Sunday, Mayor Diane Bathgate thanked them in Spanish. Among the city’s roughly 34,000 residents, there are at least 10,200 Latinos, an increase of 84.9% since 1990, according to the 2000 census.

Along with the well-groomed field, new restrooms replaced the portable toilets. And for the first time, fans and players have a drinking fountain.

The $767,500 worth of improvements were funded mostly by a grant from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Although happy with the new field, some community leaders are concerned that it might become too popular among soccer aficionados.

“This is graduation day,” exclaimed Eleazar Gonzalez, vice president of the San Juan Youth Soccer League. “We’re so happy that our field looks so good. But we are also scared. There’s a lot of fear it won’t stay this way long.”

League officials worry that eager soccer players, who have so few places to play, may overuse the field if regulations are not adopted to limit its use. City employees will be enforcing a schedule that will be determined by them and league leaders.

“We just want to create a system that people will respect and that will ensure that the field is not destroyed,” said Juan Pena, the founder of the youth soccer league, who used to water the field himself.

The field has been closed for nearly a year while crews put in irrigation systems, drainage, athletic turf, goals, trees, restrooms, a shaded picnic area, bleachers and security lighting.

“We’ve done everything we can with the design, and we’ll work on scheduling to make sure it holds up,” said Joe Mankovich, a city engineer who oversaw the renovation.

Already, there is talk of limiting or even banning adult players. A meeting between league and city officials is scheduled for this month.

And the results could change the way soccer is played in the mostly working-class Villa Capistrano neighborhood across the street from the field.

Friends who sought pickup games there could be turned away if their games are not scheduled in advance. And the field will be closed two days a week so the grass can recuperate from hard play.

No one is complaining too loudly.

“I would love to play here, but if they let us, I really fear the field will not last two months,” said Manuel Pedraza, a Villa resident who plays soccer on the days he’s not working at a Santa Margarita factory. “This is a community asset, and we want to protect it.”