Let's Play Ball!

There's been a lot of arguing lately about the proposed new sports complex at LB High. Last week, a fellow football parent asked us to sign a petition expressing support for the project, which we did and which was presented at a school board meeting overflowing with both opponents and advocates.

The project has polarized at least two camps: families of children who play sports (most of whom presumably do not live adjacent to the school) and channel-side Lido Beach homeowners. At a stop sign one morning after dropping my son off at Middle School for practice, I overheard two neighbors on the sidewalk complaining to each other about the traffic they expect  the complex to bring to the neighborhood. To which I say, true, but only on game days. And isn't that a small sacrifice for the betterment of the community as a whole? Why should LB kids be prevented from utilizing and enjoying the HS field that is presently so sub-standard that it can be used only for practice? Why should all of the district's students be permanently penalized (even on non-game days) to satiate the selfish motives of the handful of homeowners whose properties border the school grounds? And what did you expect when you bought your home on the periphery of the school field anyway? 

All I know is, last night we attended our first home football game at the new Middle School field and it was blissful sitting there in the sparkling stands, cheering on our boys (who BTW massacred the other team) and taking in the waterscape of the Lido Beach golf club behind the visitors' stand. It was fabulous to see the kids play on a clean, well marked, well lit field under a scoreboard that actually kept score!  I can only look forward to more of the same when my middle schooler starts playing for the HS team.  Let's hope the field gets built before he graduates in 2015.

Incidentally, the football parent circulating the petition in support of the field is that rare exception to the rule: a Lido homeowner willing to put the best interest of the kids ahead of his own.  We need more like him.