Lawrence and Free State High schools’ soccer fields often are the target of ridicule by rival players and their parents, according to a longtime referee.

And Haskell Indian Nations University’s football field, which serves as home stadium for three teams, is wearing out from constant use.

“We just don’t have the types of facilities for our students to compete in like (our rivals) do,” said Craig Grant, who leads the council that advises Free State’s principal. “That’s a shame; that’s not the way it should be.”

In response to such problems, Lawrence public schools Supt. Randy Weseman is likely to appoint a task force to examine the district’s outdoor athletic facilities and determine what schools around the district need.

Already, Grant and others can tick off the district’s shortcomings, which include inadequate soccer fields and the lack of a district football arena.

Free State High’s soccer field has no lights, so the school is restricted to afternoon games. Opposing teams must leave school early to arrive, and many Free State parents must take off work to watch their children play. Complaints ensue.

“You start your games at 3:30, and hopefully it’s daylight-savings time,” Grant said.

Rarities

Free State and Junction City high schools are the only 6A schools without illuminated soccer fields, said longtime soccer referee Shelley Bock of Lawrence.

Lawrence High School's Greg Payne battles Free State's Kyle Cross for possession of the ball Tuesday at Free State. Lawrence schools Supt. Randy Weseman is likely to appoint a task force to determine what improvements are necessary for the district's outdoor athletic facilities.

For its soccer games, Lawrence High rents a field in southwest Lawrence that belongs to nonprofit organization Youth Sports Inc.

“I describe it as a moonscape,” said Bock, who has refereed Kansas high school games for nearly 20 years. “There’s a lot of craters.”

The field is covered with spotty, clumpy grass and lined with ruts and holes because too many teams use it, he said.

The field has lights but lacks a public address system. And the Olathe East soccer coach insisted before a game this fall that the goal sizes were off.

Bock said he measured the goals the next day and found they were both four inches too short.

He said Sunflower League opponents “have consistently ridiculed and demeaned” the field Lawrence High players use.

In fact, Bock wrote a 22-page report describing the recent history of soccer in the state, detailing Lawrence’s poor fields and ranking 29 soccer fields or stadiums around Kansas. Stadiums in the Olathe, Topeka and Blue Valley districts won the top spots on his list.

Bock calls the LHS and FSHS fields “woefully deficient” and “inadequate” when compared with other Sunflower League facilities. He said Lawrence High needed a stadium of its own. Free State needs at least lights and more seating, if not a stadium, he said.

“Every time I’m ref-ing a game the (out-of-town) coaches say ‘Why can’t this community provide adequate facilities for soccer?” Bock said.

District fields a dream? (5-4-04) FSHS, school district at odds over soccer field (4-2-04)

Football games

Free State usually plays its football games at Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium. But Free State athletic director Steve Grant said the district needed its own.

“They haven’t kicked us out or asked us to leave or anything, but it’s kind of an imposition for us to be using their stadium,” said Grant, who is not related to Craig Grant.

Besides, he said, he doesn’t know whether KU athletic officials will continue renting the stadium for Free State games after KU football’s new facility opens.

The university is still raising funds so it can build the facility, which would include locker rooms, offices and a weight room.

Renting Memorial Stadium — or Haskell’s stadium when Free State can’t get Memorial — costs the school from $3,000 to $3,500 per game, Steve Grant said.

Free State and Lawrence High football rivals including schools from Topeka, Olathe, Blue Valley, and Shawnee Mission all play in district-owned stadiums, Steve Grant said.

“It’s great that we get to play at KU,” he said. But if Lew Perkins called me today and said, ‘Steve, we just want you to know you can play at KU as long as you want,’ I don’t think that would still deter me.”

Lawrence High started playing regularly at Haskell about 75 years ago. People associated with Lawrence High have long been proud of its football traditions, and that includes playing home games at aging Haskell Stadium.

The school pays about $3,000 a game to rent the stadium.

Free State High has played several recent games at Haskell, including one on Friday. The school could not get Memorial Stadium because of preparations for KU’s game Saturday against Colorado.

Free State tangled with Topeka High at Haskell three weeks ago because the Memorial Stadium goalposts were torn down by KU students following a win over Kansas State University.

Three teams playing home games at one stadium tears up the field, Steve Grant said.

Task force duties

Weseman needs a final OK from the school board this week before he can start putting together the task force. He expects the board will say yes.

The task force would consist of parents, businesspeople, school district officials, high school principals and perhaps junior high principals, Weseman said.

He said he didn’t expect the group to take more than a year to assess the outdoor athletic facilities and determine current and future needs

Weseman declined to speculate whether the district would use a bond issue to pay for any new projects.

“It’s just an assessment for what we have and what we need,” he said. “How we pay for it would be way down the road.”