SOLANA BEACH — Members of the Solana Beach School District acknowledged the Solana Beach Soccer Club at the Sept. 10 meeting, expressing gratitude for its $14,000 contribution for field improvements at Solana Vista Elementary School.
Bill Banning, assistant superintendent of administrative services, introduced soccer club board members Scott Billington, Jeff Maysent, Ken Wechsler and Linda Swindell and offered them “well-deserved recognition and appreciation for fostering an ongoing partnership of collaboration between the soccer club and the district.”
Banning said the project “exemplifies the outstanding relationship” the club strives to maintain with the district, which allows most nonprofit, community-based youth sports organizations free use of its fields.
Combined with a $4,000 grant from the city, the soccer club donation was used to replace irrigation, remove plastic valve covers from the playing areas, reseed and add sod. The contractor estimated the improvements will reduce water use at the school by 20 percent, Peter Cavanagh, fields coordinator, said. The upgrades will also increase safety for everyone using the fields, Banning said.
“The renovation was a textbook win-win situation benefiting the district and the soccer club,” Banning said.
When the soccer club began about 30 years ago, the goal was to raise money to buy fields, Cavanagh said. The group raised approximately $120,000 since then, but realized it may never have enough money purchase the land. So the money is being used to improve area fields instead.
“As generous as this project appears, it really isn’t a surprise to us,” Banning said. “You see, there’s a long-standing relationship with the soccer club and other local sports organizations that yields this type of in-kind donation.”
Banning described the club as a “shining example of the power of collaboration and positive relationships that result from a common desire to provide the very best for the students and families of Solana Beach.”
“I understand if we continue to be nice to these guys that the fields at Skyline (Elementary School) may be next on the list for a similar renovation,” he said.
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