Athletes, parents press Valley Central over unsafe, damaged sports fields

Valley Central athletes, parents and coaches pressed school leaders over fields they described as gravel-covered, uneven and unsafe, saying the conditions have forced students to practice in the wrong places, go home with cuts and bruises, and lose home-field opportunities that matter in the postseason.

The sharpest complaints came from varsity lacrosse players at the Valley Central Board of Education meeting, where they said teams had practiced in a parking lot while buses were still pulling in and, at other times, had been moved into the Valley Central Middle School gym because the fields could not be used. One captain said the team had been told repeatedly that conditions would improve, but that there had not been enough progress.

A parent told the board the problem went well beyond one team. He estimated that about 100 students across boys junior varsity and varsity lacrosse, girls junior varsity and varsity lacrosse, and girls flag football use the affected fields, with visiting teams effectively doubling that exposure. He said that made the safety risk too large to dismiss, especially after the girls varsity lacrosse team had earned the right to host a playoff game last season, only to have it relocated to Mount Saint Mary College because the home field was not usable.

Valley Central, based in Montgomery in Orange County, serves 4,152 K-12 students, and its spring sports slate includes varsity girls lacrosse and varsity girls flag football, along with boys and girls lacrosse at multiple levels. Those sports are tied directly to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s championship calendar, which places the spring girls lacrosse and girls flag football playoffs in June 2026, making field conditions a competitive issue as well as a safety one.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Brad Conklin told the board that unusually long snow cover this winter, lasting from early December through March 9, delayed remediation work and complicated the timeline. District officials had already been working with Cornell University turf specialists on both immediate and longer-term fixes after seasonal wear and heavy traffic exposed areas in need of improvement.

Board President Joseph Bond has previously acknowledged the district’s concern over the fields and noted in October 2025 that many nearby schools had installed artificial turf while Valley Central’s fields remained natural grass. In December 2025, administrators told the board they were doing weekly inspections, aerating, overseeding and rotating practice schedules after the Cornell assessment. The issue is now out in the open, and with another board meeting set for April 21, 2026, the district will keep facing questions about why a known safety problem has persisted.