Their own field of dreams
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Charles Rich
He remembered feeling helpless as he stared at the rain-damaged
field.
Don Sheppard wouldn’t forget the soggy field conditions when the
previously unbeaten La Canada High boys’ soccer team fell to
visiting Pomona Diamond Ranch, 2-0, in a CIF Southern Section
Division IV semifinal match Feb. 27, 2001.
The field -- not the final score -- mattered to Sheppard, who has
decided to take matters into his own hands.
Sheppard, who is president of the Arroyo United Foundation, a
non-profit organization that raises funds to help schools in
different communities, donated about $1.3 million to upgrade La
Canada’s field -- used for football and soccer -- along with its
track.
Nearly 6,000 cubic yards of dirt have been removed since the
project began June 23. Sheppard, a La Canada Flintridge resident,
said the phase will be completed by Oct. 1 and will include FieldTurf
and an all-weather track.
“I became highly motivated when I watched that soccer match,”
Sheppard said. “The field was deplorable, and there were puddles
everywhere.
“The rain affected both teams, but you just don’t want to see
contests affected by field injustices.”
Thanks to Sheppard and the approval by the governing board of the
La Canada Unified School District on June 3, the La Canada soccer
teams, track and field squads, football team and several youth
leagues will have an opportunity to compete on the renovated
facility.
Sheppard said a permanent fabric will be sewn into the surface,
including an interlocking “LC” at midfield and hash marks.
Sheppard said the football field dimensions will measure 50 by 100
yards. The soccer field will be 65 by 120 yards. Two new portable
goal posts, with a total cost of about $10,000, will be installed as
part of the project.
The eight-lane track, which will cover 400 meters, will be marked
with starting, ending and hurdle locations, along with new curbs. The
previous all-dirt track was 440 yards, Sheppard said.
“It’s the finest kind of track that could be put in,” Sheppard
said.
The shot put ring, located in the northwest corner of the field,
will be reorganized along with the surface for the pole vaulting and
long jump competition.
Sheppard said Encinitas-based Byrom-Davey is serving as the
general contractor. Atlas Track of Tualatin, Ore., is a subcontractor
for the track, and Montreal-based FieldTurf is the subcontractor for
the football field.
The La Canada football team will be forced to play their first two
regular-season home games at St. Francis, which had FieldTurf
installed in 2001. The Spartans will play nonleague games against
Burbank on Sept. 12 and Glendale on Sept. 18. La Canada will play its
first game on the new field Oct. 17 against Blair.
La Canada Coach Rich Wheeler said the new surface will take time
adjusting to, but should buoy the Spartans.
“Hopefully, it will take a quarter or half [of a game] for the
opposition to get used to,” said Wheeler, who will enter his seventh
season at La Canada. “There had been talk for two or three years
about getting a new surface.
“They asked me about it, and I told them it would be neat.”
The Spartans, who missed the postseason last year for the first
time since 1995, will play six of their regular-season games on
FieldTurf. La Canada will also play a game against San Gabriel
Gabrielino at East L.A. College on Sept. 26.