Thursday July 6, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated 10:20 am July 7, 2023]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today an artificial turf field in North Langford was officially opened.
Under the hot morning sun, the event was hosted by Sooke School District 62 (SD62), together with speeches from the City of Langford and Pacific FC.
As an example of partnership and collaboration, the North Langford Elementary Artificial Turf Field was brought to fruition by SD62 and the municipality.
Now just for a new elementary school to go with it, mused SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson.
“This is a tremendous space. We’re looking forward to an elementary school that is adjacent to it on the property just below. But this is a great step forward for that.”
As announced by SD62 back in October 2022 (prior to the municipal election held October 15, 2022), the school district owns the land and takes on the maintenance, and the municipality operates the field. The shared use agreement replicates the one in place for the field at Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School over in the Westhills area of Langford.
Today’s event was largely an opportunity for the new school board and new city mayor and council to be seen taking leadership going forward, but also an opportunity for MLA-elect Ravi Parmar to acknowledge how he still holds two roles (he is still an SD62 trustee), and for Pacific FC to take part and show off use of the field.
The official ribbon cutting to open the all-weather field was done by Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson and SD62 Interim Chair Amanda Dowhy, along with two teenage girls — Sage Cung and Brooklyn Erb — who have been part of the Royal Bay Soccer Academy since being in Grade 9 (now they’re heading into Grade 11). Two Royal Bay soccer academy students who spoke at the podium were Cassandra McKinty and Maja Music (in Grade 11 this fall), saying the academy gives them opportunity to play with their friends while working hard.
First Nations Elder Earl Claxton Jr gave an Indigenous acknowledgement of the territory.
Collaboration and shared use:
The field is for community use, so that it doesn’t sit idle outside of school hours. Same as the artificial turf field that was opened at the new Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School (that school opened September 2022).
“We want people to use these fields — not just in school hours but all the time we can,” said Mayor Goodmanson, saying he hopes that residents will use the field, and he encourages programming outside of regular school operating hours (which can be booked through City Centre Park). The City of Langford provided fencing and civil works for the parking lot. Starlight Stadium provided the field lights.
Stinson gave credit to the vision of the previous Langford mayor and council in working with the school district to develop the all-weather field amenity; the memorandum of understanding between the city and SD62 was a key process by which to enable this project. He also thanked city parks and recreation manager Yari Neilsen and SD62 facilities director Pete Godau for their hard work.
“These kinds of partnerships don’t happen everywhere in the province,” said Stinson. He thanked the new mayor and council for seeing the project through to fruition, including the new SD62 board (there was quite a turnover of elected officials for both the city and school district resulting from the October 15, 2022 local elections).
Stinson hopes that the North Langford Elementary Artificial Turf Field will continue to be a “fully functioning school site and community amenity into the future”, including through the process of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and Child Care (regarding capital and timeline for the new elementary school).
Field surface expected to last 10 years:
The super-flat field at 1380 Flint Avenue ironically seems perched upon high, being in the new-and-growing South Skirt Mountain neighbourhood, being developed as the SouthPoint development, that has relatively steep grades.
The new school will sit ‘below’ the field, on property that is part of the SD62 capital plan for building another much-needed elementary school in the west shore which continues to experience unrelentingly fast housing and population growth.
The turf on the field is in re-use from its original home at the large BC Place stadium in Vancouver. It’s expected to last about 10 years if properly taken care of, said Goodmanson today.
SD62 board remarks:
Dowhy gave some remarks on behalf of the school district, commending the partnership with the City of Langford. She heralded the field for its future contribution to “community involvement and connectedness”.
She rephrased about three times her point that sports fields teach about loss and failure as much as winning.
Pacific FC remarks:
Pacific FC managing director Paul Beirne said the field has “the most beautiful view of any pitch in the country” (also remarking that Goudy Field and the field at Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School fields also have amazing views). “This part of the country has an embarrassment of riches, it’s amazing,” said Beirne.
Beirne said the field will be a boon to youth, insisting that physical activity — particularly outdoors in sports and physical activity — is the “solution” to the “emerging mental health crisis among young people”.
He emphasized that physical and mental health are connected in important ways. Kids should be “standing up, running around and playing”. He said that there are health-care systems in the world now that no longer prescribe anti-depressants, they prescribe health-care memberships.
Pacific FC “will continue to commit to providing opportunities for young people to find their way, in a physical way, and improve their mental health,” said Beirne.
Pacific FC folks are “proud to be citizens of Langford”. There is no agreement between Pacific FC and SD62 for use of the field. PFC has agreements with the City of Langford that govern the spaces they rent from the city (e.g. offices, stadium).
PFC says their organization wants to drive attention and usage of the new field as a great community asset. “We believe in the power of sport to contribute to healthier minds and bodies for the young people of the whole region,” says PFC PR and communications rep Trisha Lees.
Can be a province-wide example:
Former SD62 board chair Ravi Parmar (now MLA-elect for Langford-Juan de Fuca) delivered some introductory remarks from the podium today. He said SD62 paid $6 million for the property, working with SouthPoint (owned by Keycorp Developments) to make it happen.
People in the area were “tired of looking at rubble”… which is now a sports field. Normally a field like that would cost about $1 million, but the price tag came in cheaper than that, said Parmar, due to collaboration between the city and the school district, noting that he worked together with former Mayor Stew Young to make it happen.
Parmar hopes to see more partnerships like that throughout the community, he told the nearly 100 people gathered there today. “This is the model that should be happening all across the province,” said Parmar, regarding recreational, sport and cultural spaces. He called Pacific FC “a great community partner”.
A bit of soccer action:
For a bit of fun, the soccer academy gals kicked played played a bit of ball with some players from the Pacific FC professional team. The field is an opportunity for student athletes to move forward from junior players into the professional ranks, said Stinson.
Some of the PFC players signed some SD62 soccer balls, as souvenirs to acknowledge the occasion.
Pacific FC Coach James Merriman made a bit of a cameo appearance at the field today. Merriman’s contract as head coach has just been renewed for another three years.
Who was there:
Also attending today were Langford city councillors Kimberley Guiry and Mary Wagner, and former city councillors Matt Sahlstrom and Lanny Seaton. Former SD62 trustee Dianna Seaton attended as well. City staffers there today included Langford Director Finance Mike Dillabaugh, Parks and Recreation Manager Yari Neilsen, and Donna Petrie, Senior Manager of Business Development and Events.
Also there for the big event were several members of the Langford Fire Rescue, including Deputy Fire Chief of Operations Scott Davidson.
Professional media from local and regional news outlets were on hand to record the day.
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke has been covering news of the west shore region since 2008. Her publication series has covered news of the day through broader socioeconomic and political insights in the region: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (since 2020).
Since 2014, Ms Brooke has attended nearly every SD62 board and committee meeting. With that depth she has served the community with a deeper understanding of the school district. In October 2022 she was a trustee candidate in the Belmont Zone of SD62 (Langford, Highlands, Colwood and Metchosin) in an effort to parlay her insights about SD62 to the broader community.
The Island Social Trends print edition (previously West Shore Voice News) launches later in July 2023, after a 3-year hiatus during the pandemic years. The print-bound copies of MapleLine Magazine, Sooke Voice News and West Shore Voice News are already part of the permanent collections at the Sooke Region Museum.
This year, Mary P Brooke has been nominated for the Jack Webster Foundation Shelley Fralic Award to recognize a professional female journalist whose journalism makes a contribution to the community.