As winter approaches and daylight dwindles, practices and games at Skyline Park are forced to end earlier due to the darkness that comes without floodlights. This has left players and coaches scrambling to make the most of the shortened time.
Players often find themselves frustrated with the limited hours they can play at Skyline as the sun sets around 6:30 p.m. in the fall and it becomes increasingly difficult to practice and compete in the dark.
Girls varsity soccer coach Ben Peters said there are a few possible reasons why lights have not yet been installed at Skyline.
“Some of it might be opposition from the neighbors, that they may not want it there,” Peters said. “Skyline used to be a landfill, so there might be some issues with the ground underneath not being stable enough to possibly put lights in.”
The installation of lights at Skyline would allow for practice and game times to go later and schedules would not have to rely on the remaining hours of daylight. According to girls varsity soccer captain Sydney Freese, the early games make it harder for the players to prepare themselves to compete.
“Often we have to drive up to Skyline and beat traffic. But we usually hit a bunch of traffic, so we usually don’t get our full warm up time and usually people are rushing to put on stuff,” Freese said. “So it’s kind of hard to get in the mindset before the games.”
Girls varsity rugby player Meredith Christ said it would benefit not only high school sports but also recreational and travel teams.
“I remember when I was younger and doing travel soccer, we’d have to end our practices so early once it got to winter because it would get so dark,” Christ said.
With Parsons Field being one of the only in the area with lights and bleachers, it’s often occupied. This means the soccer team is left to play at Skyline during the regular season, where there is also no seating. Freese said playing on a field that can host larger crowds would help spirit.
“If we did have a field somewhere in the town where there were lights and stands I think that would bring a lot of community to a lot of our sports,” Freese said.
As girls and boys rugby begin their seasons in the spring, all the games and practices have to begin relatively early in the day. However, according to Christ, night games are better as the season progresses to larger, more important games.
Peters said later games would be beneficial as they allow more parents to cheer on their children and more students to come to support their friends.
“It’ll give us the opportunity to play night games under lights. Everybody just loves the atmosphere of playing on a field under lights,” Peters said. “If we played a 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. game we’d have more people actually be available to come and watch our games as well, especially parents after they’re done with work.”
