Athletes not having a field to play on next to their high school sounds unreal. Unfortunately, at Cresskill High School, this is a reality for the Varsity and JV soccer teams. For years, people have been complaining about Cresskill High School’s soccer field, saying it has holes and bad grass. These issues were viewed as nothing critical enough to ban use of the field. 

Recently, in the 2022-2023 season, that changed. Players were getting injured too many times throughout the season, making the field seem too dangerous. After playing a game on the field, one of the captains got injured. This was the field’s last use. The day after, the players were notified they couldn’t practice on the field anymore. Confused, they asked around and figured out that the field was banned from use.

Soccer is seen as one of Cresskill’s more successful sports, with them previously going undefeated. The team now didn’t have a field directly outside of the school. The other option was the football field, which was almost always being used by the football team. Only on special occasions like senior night, the team will get to use the football field for games. Apart from that, they would have to go to Cresskill’s Recreation Center, and use the field which is smaller than high school regulation. Some might even say that the grass at the Recreation Center’s field, is worse than that at the high school. 

I think that the field shouldn’t have been banned. The field isn’t the greatest, but there is way worse. And if the school is preventing us from using the field, they should at least also put an effort into getting us a playable field.