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The flooding at Boyle Stadium that forced a postponement of Fridays football game between Stamford and Brien McMahon is only the most obvious reason the aged structure needs renovation. The game will be played Saturday at 1 p.m.
The field was put in back in 1997, said Stamford High School Athletic Director Pete Samperi. There is a sub-base of crushed rock for drainage, but over the years thats compacted and crushed some of the pipes that are supposed to carry off the water. Thats why we get a situation like this. Holcomb Avenue, which is near the field, also experiences flooding problems and may contribute to Boyles issues.
At its worst, the puddle extended from the north goal line to midfield, and Samperi joked he was going to stock it with trout and teach fly fishing to the PE classes.
Besides the flooding, the 13-year-old AstroTurf synthetic surface is worn and hard, and coming up along some of the seams, creating a hazard for athletes. Newer, more natural-feeling artificial surfaces have been developed in the past decade and have been installed at most of the other fields in the area.
In addition, the locker and storage rooms beneath the stone stadium are in poor shape, with many leaks that have shorted out electrical fixtures and caused mold to form on athletic equipment. The Board of Education voted Tuesday night to move forward on a $1.45 million renovation of the field, which was built in the mid-1930s.
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