I know it sounds good, building a softball complex and a soccer field for kids.
And the feeling is it's going to happen.
So, can we at least come to some type of compromise with the location of the proposed facilities at Toro Park?
Please, before it's too late.
It's not as simple as it seems in just moving a cross country course across the road to put in a softball facility and soccer field at Toro Park.
Let's not lose sight in the fact that this course is a state-sanctioned facility that is used for major invitationals and the Central Coast Section divisional championships every other year.
In fact, Toro's course is slated for the CCS finals this fall, where 80-plus schools will be on hand. There are only two CCS cross country courses used for the section finals.
The Toro Park cross country course, which has been around for over three decades, is also used to host junior college conference championships.
Most of you probably think of cross country as a small group of runners that run off into the woods and don't come back for 15 to 30 minutes.
But did you know that over 2,000 high school athletes in Monterey County run cross country? That over 7,000 compete on it every fall?
Did you know that Salinas High and Alisal High had bigger cross country rosters this past fall than the school's soccer or softball teams?
If you move it, you will cost our area the CCS finals. No other sport besides golf gets to host a section title event in Monterey County.
Yeah, it is a big deal.
John Devine has been writing about high school sports in Monterey County since, well, practically since he was an athlete at King City in the days just after leather helmets. In PrepNation, John has even more in-depth analysis of the latest results and news he's brought to you in The Herald and in his weekly videos.
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1 comment:
I ran cross country at Sierra College in 2000 when it had one of the premier cross country courses in Northern California which was also used for junior college and NCAA championship races before it was ruined by the addition of a parking garage and football stadium. I also ran Toro Park while at Monterey High and later MPC, and would rank the course in the same category. It was used back then for the Monterey Bay League and Coast Conference championships, and it appears to still be used for high level cross country meets now. Don't let Toro Park suffer the same fate as Sierra.
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