Why Red Hook players, coaches say $2.5 million field, gym upgrade is necessary

There is a bit of envy, the athletes will admit, when Red Hook teams visit other high schools to compete.

Almost immediately, they take notice of the playing surface, how even it is, the ease with which it allows them to maneuver and how unburdened they feel without constant concern of injury.

That, they said, is a welcome contrast to the discomforts of home.

Yianna Giannoulis has been a varsity athlete at Red Hook since the seventh grade and, the senior said, she has regularly played through pain since. She is a star on the lacrosse, soccer and track and field teams and has endured ankle sprains and persistent shin splints due in part to the timeworn athletic facilities.

“It’s always in the back of your mind like, ‘We’ve gotta be careful. This is risky,’” senior Mark Paschal said of the tattered grass field that hosts his football team. “People have gotten hurt here before.”

A quarter century of heavy use by district teams and physical education classes has rendered Red Hook’s main athletic field “unsafe,” according to athletes, coaches, and administrators.

The grass field, which opened in 1999, is shared by Red Hook High School and Linden Avenue Middle School and its deterioration has long been a concern of many students and parents. The surface is visibly uneven, pockmarked by divots and sloped lower than the surrounding track, and the ground has become compact and unyielding.

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There are foot-deep trenches just beyond the sideline, which makes going out of bounds particularly dangerous, lacrosse and football players said. That’s in addition to the inadequate drainage that results in some areas remaining waterlogged and slick even days after a downpour.

Those things all contribute to complications in accessibility for students and community members with disabilities, said Lisa Loughran, whose 14-year-old son Roger is an active Red Hook athlete despite battling arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a joint disorder.

It is for those reasons the proposed renovation of their athletic facilities, as part of a larger construction plan, has received ardent support from students and school administrators hoping for a literal leveling of the playing field.

As its community prepares to vote in the annual district election Tuesday, among the items Red Hook seeks approval for is a $14.95 million capital improvement proposal that would cover several infrastructural upgrades to the schools. Changes would include the installation of a multipurpose turf field, resurfacing of the surrounding track, and a renovation of the floor and bleachers of the high school gymnasium, which haven’t been replaced since the school’s opening in 1963.

A purpose in the modifications is to meet compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the installation of rails on the bleachers and seating that better accommodates people with disabilities.

“The community has always been more than helpful, but without the extra effort of the staff and coaches, Roger might not even be able to get up on the football field,” said Lisa Loughran, whose son recently completed a season with the Unified Basketball team. “It’s not just about him. Increasing accessibility is a benefit to everyone.”

Red Hook is one of four Dutchess County schools that doesn’t yet have a turf field, and athletes said they’ve gotten used to the raised eyebrows and complaints from visiting opponents, and even referees, concerned for their own safety.

“I have friends on other teams who’ve said, ‘How do you guys do it?’” said Robert Paschal, Mark’s younger brother and a sophomore on the football team. “It’s not a good feeling, knowing that your field isn’t up to par with most of the other schools we play against and people kind of look down on it.”

About $2.5 million of the proposal budget would be allocated to the installation of a turf field that would be expected to last about 15 years. The construction would include field lighting, making the space usable at night and better able to accommodate local youth leagues and community members, administrators said.

The field would be lined for multiple sports and serve as home for all the district football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse teams. The surface also would still be utilized for middle and high school phys. ed classes.

There is pushback by some in the community, administrators acknowledged, as arguments have been raised about the cost versus benefits and the safety of a synthetic surface.

The district insists that, although a turf field costs about $700,000 more than grass to install, the difference is offset somewhat by the $58,000 annual savings in reduced maintenance costs. And, with the use of the field potentially doubling, there would be more bang for the considerable bucks.

Rich Saulino, the boys lacrosse and soccer coach said that a well-kept grass surface is ideal. But that isn’t feasible for Red Hook, given the constant trodding on that field.

“Ours isn’t a good grass field,” the longtime coach said. “It needs to be safer for our athletes.”

During a lacrosse game last week, a visiting player was contacted near the sideline, and tumbled backward toward a drainage ditch. Robert Paschal said that in football games, he’ll sometimes deliberately fall inbounds after a run along the sideline, believing that to be a safer option than being shoved out of bounds toward the slope.

“I don’t know another field like this,” athletic director Tom Cassata said.

A level playing field

Stissing Mountain, Webutuck and Rhinebeck are the only other Dutchess County schools that still primarily use grass fields, and only Stissing Mountain (Pine Plains) hosts football games. Spackenkill redid its field in 2020 and has since become one of the host sites for the Section 9 football championships, and Pawling last year debuted a new athletic facility.

Adjacent to Red Hook High School are additional fields that typically host girls soccer and field hockey matches, and those too have long presented challenges. In fact, Giannoulis said, her team sets up cones as a warning to visiting teams approaching the field irrigation system during games.

Cassata said there are about 40 schools in this and neighboring counties within Section 9 that have turf, and those are venues at which Red Hook teams regularly compete. That creates a competitive disadvantage, the athletes said.

A ball moves faster and more consistently on turf, thus hastening the pace of a play. For them, there is a constant adjustment between the speed they’re accustomed to at practice and during home games, and what they’ll deal with on the road. It’s exacerbated in the playoffs, Giannoulis said, because almost all neutral-site games at the sectional level and beyond are played on turf fields.

Adding to that, the Red Hook fields are frequently impacted by weather and left unplayable. Sometimes, athletes said, they’re limited to less than half the field during practice because the rest still is saturated.

Those nature-made setbacks often result in shuffled and reshuffled schedules. That, Cassata said, can create a complicated time crunch and difficulties in finding available officials, which forces several games to be canceled each spring and fall. Bard College has been gracious in allowing Red Hook use of its field, Saulino said, but only when it isn’t otherwise in use. So, some of their “home” games will become road trips or have lengthy postponements.

“It could’ve rained two weeks before and there are still some spots on the field that are wet,” freshman soccer player Jackson Huber said. “It’s not fun when you’ve got home game coming up, but you know they might get moved or canceled because of the field.”

Multiple postponements can eventually put physical stress on the athletes when those games are crammed into a few condensed makeup dates, leaving little time to rest.

“You end up with a week where you’ve got games on (consecutive) days, trying to play catch-up, and it takes a toll on you after the first couple,” said Kellee Knuschke, a junior on the girls soccer and track and field teams. You definitely feel it, and it affects performance.”

The district has surveyed vendors and considered what products it might purchase, but it can go no further unless the proposition is passed. If it does, Cassata said, the field could be completed in time for the current sophomores to christen it as seniors.

“People who aren’t involved don’t get to see how much the facilities affect us,” said Giannoulis. “This would help the athletes immensely and help our programs grow. I hope everyone keeps an open mind.”

Mark Paschal has allowed himself to envision the overhauled facilities at Red Hook, imagining the football players no longer having to kick their cleats between plays to remove the “three inches of mud stuck to the bottom,” and going as far as picturing the venue hosting section and regional tournaments.

“It’d be a little bittersweet because I won’t play on it,” the 17-year-old said with a smile. “But there would be so much excitement and pride in coming back from college and seeing my little brother and the other young kids enjoying it.”

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4826; Twitter: @StephenHaynes4

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Why Red Hook players, coaches say $2.5 million field, gym upgrade is necessary