By Emily Khaykin
Ted Slavin Field.
7:45 a.m.: Students walk down the stairs and dump their sports bags in the gym avoiding the track completely.
11:30 a.m: Both the track and the field are empty.
12:10 p.m.: Students walk off campus for lunch taking a short cut across the track, passing a jogger stretching.
1:01 p.m: A neighbor in a white sweatshirt jogs around the track.
3:35 p.m: Dozens of members of the track team spread over the track while the lacrosse team diffuses on to the field.
The track is open to all students during the day if they want to play a quick game during a free period, but students rarely do. In fact, since the track is open to the community, walkers and joggers can be seen on the track at all times of the day.
Junior Zaakirah Daniels, a member of the Student Athletic Advisory Council, says that students probably “get as much work done during the day so that they may catch up on relaxation, sleep, etc. when they get home.” She also says that “students probably feel that the field is a tad far from the quad, where itâs much easier to hang out and work.”
SAAC member Bridget Golob â10 suggests, “Iâm sure if we sponsored some events, the field would be used regularly during the day, no doubt.”
A student at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach said that she and her friends organized an event to encourage students to come out to the track and field to play a different sport each period of the school day.
“We got a lot of people coming out to play,” she said. “First period was lacrosse, second was soccer,” she remembers, for those were the periods that she had attended. However, when she had to go to class, another friend of hers, who did not have class, took over and started a field hockey game. And after that there were relay races on the track.
Boysâ Head Basketball Coach Greg Hilliard recalls that in the past they have tried to organize activities like a “walking group that died.” Athletic Director Terry Elledge said that in past springs, students frequently played ultimate Frisbee and flag football on the field.
