Wellesley High Athletic Director John Brown would still love by some miracle to get the football team playing a regular season home game or two on the new field, but recognizing that’s probably not going to happen due to some delays in construction, he has worked out a deal with his counterpart at Weston High to let Wellesley play two home-away-from-home games there instead. One will be night games on Sept. 23 vs. Natick and the other will be Sept. 30 vs Dedham. As Brown says, the Weston High field might actually be easier to get to than Wellesley High for some Wellesley families, as it is on Wellesley Street (Weston Road turns into this when you cross the town line).
With Weston heading into some field work of its own, Brown figures he might be called on to return the favor next year.
Meanwhile, there is a good chance that Wellesley will be able to have a playoff game at home on the new turf.
Discussion of the field’s status took place this past week during the School Committee meeting, where a couple of parents expressed their concerns about permanent lights coming to the field. But those involved on the project said that while infrastructure is being put in to facilitate lights, if the town were ever to decide to put them in, that there are no plans for lights at this point. Even temporary lights are problematic because of the damage they could do to the track and the increased cost of lighting the new field vs. the old, but that’s an issue likely to be addressed for next football season.
In the meantime, the team building the track and field is hoping weather will cooperate in the weeks ahead so that the track portion can be put in. A few weeks of good weather will be required for the track surface spraying/curing process to take hold, and if things get mucked up, that could cause issues for spring sports.
You can view the discussion via Wellesley Public Media’s coverage below by tuning in at about the 60-minute mark.
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