Tonight the Pajaro Valley football team will play its annual homecoming game against Soquel.
Homecoming is supposed to be a celebration of the school’s existence for current and former students alike. It’s supposed to be a moment in which alumni return to their old stomping grounds, and soak in nostalgia while remembering the memories they made in their younger years. But for all intents and purposes, tonight’s game against Soquel will be a road game.
Pajaro Valley doesn’t have a home field. It plays its “home” games wherever it can. In tonight’s case, Carl Conelly Stadium on the campus of Cabrillo College will be its “home” field — a location that is roughly 11 miles from the Grizzlies’ campus, yet just two-and-a-half miles from Soquel.
It shouldn’t be this way.
On Election Day, Measure L, a $150 million school bond measure passed by voters, will be six years old. And while some people around Watsonville and the greater Santa Cruz County have forgotten about — or simply lost faith in — Pajaro Valley’s situation, I haven’t. Most students, alumni, teachers and administrators at Pajaro Valley, haven’t either.
The school website’s landing page has it in plain writing under its “Happenings” section: “It’s been 2,173 days since Measure ‘L’ passed and no construction has begun.”
I’m not here to rip the powers that be. That would be a little unfair. Pajaro Valley Unified District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez stepped into the job just two years ago, and by all accounts has made more progress on bringing the school its athletic fields than the previous administration made in four years — who knew dealing with the Watsonville Pilots Association and city could be so easy?
It would also be short-sighted to say PVUSD has done nothing since the passing of Measure L. Since 2012, classrooms and schools across the district have received much-needed facelifts — Radcliff Elementary looks like one of the nicest schools in the county now, and E.A. Hall’s campus is nearly unrecognizable.
If I had the chance to revote on the 2012 measure, I would still vote for its passing in a heartbeat — I think many voters would, too. But that doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with the inaction on the campus of one of the biggest backers of the bond. Let’s not forget that dozens of Pajaro Valley student-athletes — many of whom have already graduated college by now — toured Watsonville neighborhoods and pleaded with voters to help pass Measure L.
In the latest update our news team received, PVUSD approved a contractor that will oversee the construction of the proposed fields. That was a fantastic step in the right direction, but the fact that the district was unwilling to give a start date, month or quarter for the construction other than sometime in 2019, was not.
These things take time. We all know this. It’s a massive multimillion dollar project that needs to be done correctly the first time. I don’t want PVUSD to rush through anything, and I don’t want whoever is reading this to burry the district either.
What do I want? For people who do not have kids at Pajaro Valley to remember that those students — still running the mile on their concrete parking lot and practicing football on a field that’s no better — were one of the biggest reasons why everyone else in the PVUSD is benefiting today. Don’t forget about them.
Oh, and hitting the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot wouldn’t be bad either.
MIXED REVIEWS
Four league games. Four 40-plus point performances. Four blowout victories.
Aptos has rolled through the Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan division, and is heavily favored in tonight’s game against Christopher, which holds a 1-3 league record and fell 41-13 to Palma last week.
For the second time in as many years, Aptos, Salinas, San Benito and Palma are dominating the Gabilan division. The division’s big four has a combined 14-2 record in league play. The two defeats: Palma’s loss to Salinas and San Benito’s loss to Aptos.
I guess none of this is surprising, but it is a bit disappointing. The creation of the PCAL was supposed to stop these blowouts, right? It was supposed to even the field and give every team a better chance to compete.
The lower divisions have been a little better, but not by much. In the Mission division, Monte Vista Christian barely edged out a 21-13 win over Alisal, and Scotts Valley held off a Watsonville rally for a 25-20 victory. But in the Cypress division, North Monterey County and San Lorenzo Valley both pitched shutouts last week, and in the Santa Lucia three teams won by 20 points or more.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, as several athletic directors have told me in some shape or form over the last five years: in a perfect world an equity league is foolproof, but, sadly, this is not a perfect world.
• Editor’s Note: Tony’s Thoughts is a reoccurring column from Sports Editor Tony Nunez that dives into the local sports world with an emphasis in football in the fall. Contact Nunez at [email protected] or 761-7335.
