BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A Delano High School football game Friday night kicked up so much dust from a deteriorating field that players complained of trouble breathing and dirt in their eyes, prompting the closure of Gene Beck Stadium so repairs can be made.<\/p>\n
The Delano Joint Unified School District closed the stadium yesterday to repair the field, which had several dirt patches.<\/p>\n
Chad Martinez, a former Wasco football coach who lives nearby and is a district board candidate, described arriving at the stadium and being stunned by the conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember walking down the ramp because it\u2019s a bowl. I\u2019m walking down the ramp, and I was just like: what is going on? Is this the Twilight Zone?\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
Martinez said some dirt is expected in the Central Valley, but not to the extent seen Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know there\u2019s some dirt to be expected. We live in the Valley. It\u2019s triple digits for a while, but this was egregiously bad. After every play you just saw dirt and dust being kicked up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Martinez posted two videos on social media about the field\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n
The Delano Joint Union School District declined an interview request but responded with a statement: \u201cI can confirm that the Delano High School football field was not in ideal conditions for Friday’s game, and we understand why that drew attention. The field was evaluated and was safe for play. The condition is the result of natural turf reaching the end of its lifespan. Resodding the field has been part of our facilities plan for some time. That work began this week,” from Rene Ayon, assistant superintendent of student services for the Delano Joint Union School District.<\/p>\n
Delano will relocate its Sept. 11 home game against Foothill to Robert F. Kennedy High School while work continues. The team is aiming to have the football field ready for Oct. 16, when Delano plays against Shafter.<\/p>\n
In one clip from the field, Greg Kerr of Hometown Sports described the dust being kicked up during play: \u201cNow, have you heard of the saying: three yards and a cloud of dust? If you have or haven\u2019t, we\u2019re here to show it to you right here. That\u2019s three yards. That\u2019s a lot of dirt on the field. That\u2019s a lot of dust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district statement attributed the problem to natural turf reaching the end of its lifespan. An email question to Ayon asking whether fungus played any role in the turf\u2019s decline did not receive a response. Martinez said he was told by a Delano staff member there had been fungus on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s completely unacceptable because it was in good condition for graduation last spring. You could see that somebody just didn’t pay attention, from the administration to the school board to a bunch of people in between. That should be aware of what’s going on in the campus, and they completely dropped the ball on this,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
The Delano girls flag football team, in its inaugural season, also will not be able to play in the stadium while the field is being repaired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A Delano High School football game Friday night kicked up so much dust from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-452003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}