As fall break began on Sept. 20th, the construction of Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) track and football field kicked off in order to build the football stadium. As a result, fall sports like football, field hockey and cross country have been impacted through relocating practices and playing on different fields.

 “The construction project is a short term hurdle, but the long term benefits for students and student-athletes will be worth the wait,” cross country coach Dan Kettlehake said.

Currently, cross country’s training, racing times and practice location have slightly changed. Since fall break, due to construction on the field, cross country will temporarily be practicing on campus by the softball fields. The team generally practices off BVH’s campus, so the construction doesn’t hugely affect them. 

As for football, during fall break, they were practicing off campus at Bonita Vista Middle (BVM). Since students have returned to school, the football team’s temporary location is at BVH’s campus on the soccer field.  To add on, football is one of the most affected by the construction at the moment. They’ve had to practice on different fields and play their lower level games all away from their usual place. While their varsity team holds home games at Southwestern College (SWC). Even though the football team uses buses, it still proves a challenge for the football players to transport to home games that are not at SWC. The student-athletes have to miss a portion of their school day to travel to their football games, since none will be held at BVH. 

Concurrently, girls’ field hockey is playing and practicing at BVM for their whole season which greatly affects them. They’ve made adjustments by holding practices and home games at BVM. Similar to football, it’s challenging for students to drive and get rides to the middle school. As for settling in at BVM, Athletic Director and Head football coach Arciaga and the BVM Administration have helped field hockey as they prepare for their season. They also have a system set up, which has helped move equipment and given access to the field. 

“There were some days that some students said ‘hey there is traffic,’ or ‘we can’t get out in time.’ We have to remember as coaches to be a little bit more flexible with [schedules], [but at the same time keep] our expectations high,” Head field hockey coach Brianne Paxton said. “ I do believe there have been some roadblocks, but we are figuring it out along the way.”

Right now, girls’ field hockey’s main obstacle is traffic, the players struggle to make it to BVM on time  to practice and play their home games. Lately, the traffic is mainly caused by the construction for the new stadium. 

“We have to give a little bit so that in the long run we can get on that turf next year. This has been a long time coming for the highschool, so if it means being at the middle school for one season I’d take that anyday over having to wait,” Paxton said.

Meanwhile, field hockey Captain and senior Andrea Sanchez-Veliz gave her perspective on the adjustments and struggles she is currently facing as a student-athlete. “I’ve played on the high school field for three years,” Sanchez-Veliz said. “Just going to a new field [BVM’s field] I think it, it just feels like you’re not really on your own field.” She then goes on to say that once you start practicing and playing on a certain field, you get accustomed to it.

Sanchez-Veliz feels she hasn’t fully adjusted to playing at BVM since she’s played at BVH for so long.  She struggles with the traffic getting there from home, and “makes sure everyone has enough time [to get to practice].” As a captain she feels she is “responsible to make sure everybody gets there on time.”

Arciaga, Paxton and Kettlehake all mention that there is currently a little bit of pain with the construction, but it will bring great things in the future for student-athletes and physical education students.

“The biggest thing is that there’s going to be some challenges [for sports teams] right now, but there’s going to be a lot of benefits from [the construction of the football stadium] too,” Arciaga said.