Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2010, Page 127

Description:	save, dont paveThe girls soccer team demonstrated against thedecision to pave the practice field.Imagine showing up for anafternoon practice to find thepractice field roped off. Imagineyour team having to relocateevery other day in search of anarea to practice. For BloomingtonSouths 2009 girls soccer team,this stirred up many emotions, Intheir eyes, their field wassomething special and worthfighting for. Their practice fieldwas transformed into an additionalparking lot for the Monroe CountySchool Corporation buses locateddirectly behind the field. Thechange came as a surprise. Weshowed up to practice one dayand found stakes and constructionequipment around the field, saidjunior Ellyn Sallee.This angered many of theplayers. The team came togetherand decided something should bedone, Sallee and fellow teammatejunior Laurel Cohen, organized aprotest. Invitations throughFacebook and e-mails were sentto the team to spread the news,Parents helped create a petitionto move the construction date 30days after the season would end.Initially, the construction wasto take place during the middle ofthe season leaving the teamstranded with no place topractice. The situation createdmany problems for the girlssoccer team. They had toconstantly search for areas topractice. They often had tochange practice times andlocations in order to be able topractice. Senior SamanthaMorrison added the front fieldwas in bad condition and we hadseveral players get hurt due to thesurface of the ground and all theholes.Finally, on September 8, 2009,their idea prevailed, About 30people showed up to protest. Ithink it was a good turnout, saidMorrison, Players shouted, Saveour Field, and held signs readingSave! Dont Pave! Players andparents protested for a long hour.It was a great effort by the team,Although their field was still takenfrom them, they were promised anew practice field andimprovements to their existinggame field. Sallee agreed it was agood effort. She felt it brought theteam closer. It was a fun bondingexperience because [they] werefighting to save our field.As a senior, Morrison washanded the responsibility ofcreating the annual soccer poster,We figured we might as wellmake due with the situation andhave some fun with it, she said. Inthe poster, the girls were throwingbright yellow hard hats into the airas a salute to their beloved field.Our motto this year was TearinUp the Field, so it went perfectly.-JESSICA TOWELL
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/8430
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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