The track and field team at Lexington High School is petitioning the School Building Committee (SBC) for a newer, larger fieldhouse to accommodate their needs.
Steve McKenna, coach of the LHS track and field team and a graduate of the class of 2009, believes that the fieldhouse is simply not large enough.
“During my time at LHS, we practiced and competed in the field house. Even then the field house was too small to meet the needs of our growing team, but we made do with the small facility,” McKenna said.
Victor Yu, a senior in the track program, echoes the concerns regarding the space limitations.
“The field house has been indirectly responsible for many injuries because of the space issues and the relatively harsh track,” Yu said.
These issues have only gotten worse as the track team has grown in number, especially with the recent pole vault event getting rebooted. Additionally, 32 other varsity sports at LHS utilize the fieldhouse.
“The space is far too small, which often forces groups to practice outside in the middle of the winter. When other groups such as basketball are using the field house, space issues only become worse for both groups,” Yu said.
As a response to these challenges, Naomi Martin, the Athletic Director at LHS, has taken measures to ensure that students have enough space for all events during meets.
“To provide for our student-athletes with the best possible conditions to compete, [Martin] moved meets out of the field houses in Lexington, Reading, and Woburn—which are all ~145m tracks that are too small to host the 24 boys and girls teams in the Middlesex League—to compete at the indoor tracks in Boston,” McKenna said. “Reggie Lewis [Track and Field Center], Boston University, and The TRACK at New Balance all have 200m tracks, necessary space for all field events, and plenty of room to host our athletes, coaches, and spectators weekly.”
In addition to being larger, McKenna hopes that a new field house will resemble the athletic centers of other schools.
“The field houses at Phillips Andover Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy have many of the components of what we envision for the new athletics center in Lexington,” McKenna said.
While the final plan for the field house is still being decided, progress has been made towards acquiring a larger space. This has largely been done through Community Forums, where parents and students voiced their opinions regarding the new field house.
“A Community Forum was held at Cary Hall on March 6 where parents and students made it clear to the SBC members and the architects that replacing the current field house with a new athletics center must be considered along with the larger LHS Building Project. Since then, architects drew up an option that would include a 72,000 square foot athletics center, which would include a 200m six-lane track,” McKenna said.
Besides providing an improved training facility for the track team, a new field house may also benefit the greater Lexington community.
“Having [the fieldhouse] be somewhere near the high school—and therefore near the town center—could also turn it into a communal indoor athletics space for the whole town,” Yu said. “The new field house would not only greatly improve all the winter sports teams’ practices, but could also help PE classes explore new activities and help the town as a whole.”
