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Sports, Facilities
Several high school and youth sports teams are struggling with inadequate sports facilities.
At last week’s School Board meeting the lack of tennis courts at the school was one reason given for not trying to field a tennis team, in spite of the fact that four other teams in the Bull Run District field tennis teams.
Because tennis does not require a lot of people to field a team and because there are many private courts in the coifhty, Rappahannock could have a good chance of fielding a truly competitive team. Additionally tennis is a sport that can be played for life. That is not necessarily true for most high school team sports. i
The track team needs a hard-surfaced track, and the current track cannot be hard-surfaced because the dirt under it is fill. Because of the poor condition of the track, Rappahannock cannot host any track meets. Also students wanting to run track need two sets of shoes, because shoes i suitable for running on the school’s gravel track are not allowed on hard surfaced tracks.
Additionally with soccer played in the spring, both the track and soccer teams are trying to use the same area for practices. When there are soccer games the track team can’t practice. Last spring the hurdlers were using the not-yetopened lanes on the U.S. 211 to practice jumping hurdles. That won’t be possible this year.
The area behind the high school is a satisfactory soccer field, but it is not satisfactory for track.
With youth football underway last fall youth teams for both football and soccer were using that same soccer field. We had the interesting phenomenon of playing football on a field without goal posts. In addition it was necessary to continually change the lines of lime depending on which sport was being played.
It is inevitable that that the youth football program will eventually lead for calls for a high school football team. ' Something else will have to be provided for a football field. After years of picking glass out of the field, it is finally useful for soccer, but it would be better to start over to develop a football field, which would also have to be lighted.
Since football is played in the fall and track is a spring sport, those two sports can use the same area. What is needed is a football field with a track around it and separate areas for field events. Additional space could be used for tennis courts.
This county has had tremendous success calling on the > community for support for many different needs. We believe that the community would come through for expanded athletic facilities, but first the county needs to acquire the land.
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