AMHERST — Sunday’s heavy rain, and an ultimate tournament played during the Mothers’ Day downpours, has left a primary athletic field at Amherst Regional High School muddy and unplayable for other sports teams.
The Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament final contests were played on the high school field in the wet weather, even though the matches the previous day were staged on the town-owned Community Field, where the football, baseball and softball teams play, and at the McDuffie School in Granby.
Because of the damage caused, some games, including a varsity girls lacrosse match featuring Westfield and Amherst, were postponed.
Carol Samuels, coach of the varsity girls lacrosse team, said in an email that the damage has exacerbated an already bad situation.
“The problem with the ultimate tournament was that the decision to play on our already saturated fields in the rain was unfortunate and narrowly focused,” Samuels said.
In fact, the field is often wet and drains poorly, which has prompted school and town officials to consider rebuilding it as part of a project that would also replace a 20-year-old track that extends around its perimeter.
The often wet conditions have led Samuels and boys varsity lacrosse coach Charlie Edwards to frequently practice indoors.
Even before the latest issues with the field, the girls lacrosse had moved four games to the field at the middle school, but that site is 20 yards too short for regulation games.
Last fall, a girls soccer match was moved from the same field to the football gridiron.
The Amherst Center Recreation Working Group has received a cost estimate of $3.9 million to $6.2 million to repair the field and build a new track.
That estimate came from a study by Weston & Samposn of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, which identified many unmet needs from years of neglect and lack of investment in resources, with many fields now deemed to be in fair or poor condition.
In a 10-year capital plan for the regional schools, which are supported by Amherst, Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham, the field repairs are considered urgent. That plan has $5 million set aside in fiscal year 2022 for field improvements.
While sports team may be able to use fields at the University of Massachusetts or other local colleges, with their sports season mostly over, Samuels said what happened to the main field is a reminder of the urgency for the school district and the town to find solutions to what has been a long-standing problem.
“I look forward to seeing what the plan is moving forward,” Samuels said. “With teamwork we can get this done for the student-athletes.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
