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Council approves agreement to use prospect field for youth soccer

By Shannon Burkey

As part of an effort to find more game fields for the city's youth soccer leagues, the Saratoga City Council has approved an agreement with Prospect High School to utilize its new full-size turf field for soccer game play.

Council members Kathleen King and Nick Streit have been working on negotiations with the Campbell Unified School District since February. The council voted unanimously at its Oct. 19 meeting to approve the joint-use agreement with the school district.

"This is a step forward to help alleviate the issue that everyone has with playing games in our city parks," Streit said to the council.

As part of the two-year agreement, the city will have access to the field on Sundays to play games at a rate of $35 an hour. The agreement will also allow for some scheduled practices the rest of the week at the same rate. In addition, the city will provide periodic monitoring of the school by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.

"This will really open up the relationship between Prospect and the city," King said. "It will overall bring us together. This is a great deal."

In April, the school district began upgrad ing the field at Prospect, which was originally a grass football field. With the upgrades now finished, the field has been turned into a multipurpose artificial turf field that can be used for soccer, field hockey and football.

Over the years, the school district and the city have discussed the possibility of the city using the field, but with the upgrade project in the works, the talks were put on the back burner, according to the district's director of support services, John Nolan. But with the field now complete, Nolan said the district feels good about the agreement.

"We see this agreement as a win-win for both entities," Nolan said. "This allows not just our school to use the field, but it will allow community use so that younger kids will be able to also enjoy using it."

The city recently entered into a similar agreement with West Valley College to use two of its fields for youth soccer games. The agreement with the college also requires the city to make some improvements to the college's two fields and maintain them.

"This is a much better deal than with West Valley," King said. "The rate for both is $35, but we have to maintain the fields at the college."

Since there are improvements to be done to the fields at West Valley, they will not be ready until late spring or early summer, but the fields at Prospect are ready to be used at this time, according to public works director John Cherbone.

For the soccer groups, who for a long time have fought for space to play their games in Saratoga, the city's acquisition of another field is a huge step forward.

"We are so happy to have this field," said Howard Miller, the regional commissioner for the American Youth Soccer Organization.

The soccer organization currently plays games at Blue Hills Elementary School, Redwood Middle School and Congress Springs Park but is often limited to certain days in each location. With another field available, the league can alleviate the pressure on some of the other areas on game days.

"Having these fields is a win-win situation for everyone involved," King said.

Now that the city council has approved the agreement, it will go before the school board for approval at its Nov. 2 meeting.