TheLounge
02-04-2008, 02:03 PM
On its best days, the soccer field at Aragon High is bad. It’s the same field the football team tears up in the summer and fall before the soccer teams take over in the winter. It’s rutted, bumpy and in just overall bad condition.
Add a week’s worth of rain?The “beautiful game” gets bogged down and turns into a game of kickball.
The ball gets muddy and waterlogged, it skips across the turf, pinballing across the field. Footing is treacherous and putting touch on a pass is nearly impossible.
As far as Aragon girls’ coach Michael Flynn and the Lady Dons are concerned, there is not a more beautiful field in the Peninsula Athletic League. Come hell or high water, the Dons are playing their home games at home, thanks for asking.
“This is our home field. We have to play on it,” Flynn said after the Dons lost 1-0 to Burlingame Tuesday amid a steady, game-long drizzle on a field that literally changed with each cleated step. “It’s not an advantage. We want to play at home.”
The Aragon girls are the only team in the PAL’s Bay Division that plays its home games on natural grass. All seven other teams play on artificial turf. Everyone agrees playing on fake grass is preferrable than a rutted, natural field. The ball rolls true, there aren’t a lot of funny bounces and it allows teams to play an attractive, possession-based game. Cleaning bills are non-existant on the fake stuff but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Aragon players had to run their WHITE uniforms through the wash a couple of times after Tuesday’s game.
It would be easy for Aragon to just switch its games to the opposition’s home to take advantage of artificial turf. Flynn’s not having it. He knows, if nothing else, playing on Aragon’s field is a psychological advantage for the Dons. The Dons don’t have a tremendous amount of physical advantage because they don’t use the field for anything other than games. The rest of the time they’re practicing in the gym or on the empty outdoor basketball courts.
But all the Dons realize when they step foot on their home turf, they can play with anybody.
“I ask the girls if they want to move games,” Flynn said. “They say no. They want to play at home and they deserve to play at home.”
And don’t think the Dons are only willing to play the tough teams in the mud, muck and rain. If the game is scheduled at Aragon, the Dons will be playing.
Burlingame coach Philip DeRosa understands Aragon’s reasoning. The first-place Panthers are the exact type of team that could have suffered a debilitating loss playing on the Dons unpredictable field. And despite the sloppy conditions, there was no doubt Burlingame was the better team Tuesday but DeRosa understood the decision to play the game.
“I know the strategy,” DeRosa said. “Try to slow down our speed.”
***
Hard to believe that the high school basketball season is entering the home stretch. After Wednesday games, there are only three games left before league and section playoffs start. As far as the the three divisions in the PAL, nothing has been decided —*on either the girls’ or boys’ side.
Expect the intensity to pick up the last week-and-half of the season not only as teams jockey for playoff spots but also because of the biggest and most intense emotional games are scheduled.
Thanks to a quirk in the schedule, no rivalry games were played during the first half of the season. Now, both rivalry games will be played in a span of 2 1/2 weeks, including the regular-season finale next Friday, Feb. 8.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.
Add a week’s worth of rain?The “beautiful game” gets bogged down and turns into a game of kickball.
The ball gets muddy and waterlogged, it skips across the turf, pinballing across the field. Footing is treacherous and putting touch on a pass is nearly impossible.
As far as Aragon girls’ coach Michael Flynn and the Lady Dons are concerned, there is not a more beautiful field in the Peninsula Athletic League. Come hell or high water, the Dons are playing their home games at home, thanks for asking.
“This is our home field. We have to play on it,” Flynn said after the Dons lost 1-0 to Burlingame Tuesday amid a steady, game-long drizzle on a field that literally changed with each cleated step. “It’s not an advantage. We want to play at home.”
The Aragon girls are the only team in the PAL’s Bay Division that plays its home games on natural grass. All seven other teams play on artificial turf. Everyone agrees playing on fake grass is preferrable than a rutted, natural field. The ball rolls true, there aren’t a lot of funny bounces and it allows teams to play an attractive, possession-based game. Cleaning bills are non-existant on the fake stuff but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Aragon players had to run their WHITE uniforms through the wash a couple of times after Tuesday’s game.
It would be easy for Aragon to just switch its games to the opposition’s home to take advantage of artificial turf. Flynn’s not having it. He knows, if nothing else, playing on Aragon’s field is a psychological advantage for the Dons. The Dons don’t have a tremendous amount of physical advantage because they don’t use the field for anything other than games. The rest of the time they’re practicing in the gym or on the empty outdoor basketball courts.
But all the Dons realize when they step foot on their home turf, they can play with anybody.
“I ask the girls if they want to move games,” Flynn said. “They say no. They want to play at home and they deserve to play at home.”
And don’t think the Dons are only willing to play the tough teams in the mud, muck and rain. If the game is scheduled at Aragon, the Dons will be playing.
Burlingame coach Philip DeRosa understands Aragon’s reasoning. The first-place Panthers are the exact type of team that could have suffered a debilitating loss playing on the Dons unpredictable field. And despite the sloppy conditions, there was no doubt Burlingame was the better team Tuesday but DeRosa understood the decision to play the game.
“I know the strategy,” DeRosa said. “Try to slow down our speed.”
***
Hard to believe that the high school basketball season is entering the home stretch. After Wednesday games, there are only three games left before league and section playoffs start. As far as the the three divisions in the PAL, nothing has been decided —*on either the girls’ or boys’ side.
Expect the intensity to pick up the last week-and-half of the season not only as teams jockey for playoff spots but also because of the biggest and most intense emotional games are scheduled.
Thanks to a quirk in the schedule, no rivalry games were played during the first half of the season. Now, both rivalry games will be played in a span of 2 1/2 weeks, including the regular-season finale next Friday, Feb. 8.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.