EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff The Intramural Field was
torn up as construction for a new parking lot began.
By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin REPORTER
[email protected]
Five years ago, Sports Illustrated proclaimed UCLA “The
No.1 Jock School,” and many reasons were offered to explain
the Bruins’ supremacy.
One of them was how the campus provides incredible facilities
for its casual jocks. It mentioned how “UCLA is a first-rate
place to play, too. It doesn’t hurt that the climate is
terrific or that the 11-acre intramural field is right off Bruin
Walk in the heart of campus. Intramural sports are hypercompetitive
in everything from basketball to squash to inner-tube water
polo.”
However, in the last year, that 11-acre field has been turned
into yet another construction site, complete with the requisite
green mesh fences, dump trucks and concrete pillars to make room
for more parking on campus.
The loss of the field space immediately presented a major
concern, especially considering that UCLA already had a lack of
field space for such a large campus.
Many IM sports teams as well as numerous club teams were forced
to relocate to the North Athletic Field, which is approximately one
third of the former IM Field’s size, as well as to other
spots on campus to find available space.
Michael Deluca, director for cultural and recreational affairs,
said that the project had been in planning for a few years, making
it easier to find ways to accommodate the lack of space.
“The staff did an amazing job ““ working with all our
groups, scheduling clubs and modifying intramural activity,”
Deluca said. “It wasn’t an ideal situation, but I think
we weathered the first year very well and we learned a
lot.”
Dealing with the adjustments was tough in the beginning,
especially for club teams that use the field for practices and
games.
“It was really tough this year not having the IM
Field,” said Melissa Lorang, captain and president of the
women’s field hockey team. “Practices were more limited
in both time and space availability. We had to share the NAF with
one or two other teams at a time.
“The situation for games was horrible because we were not
able to have a single home game all year, which meant traveling to
Santa Barbara or further every weekend just to be able to
play.”
Other teams had similar complaints, but because of the
situation, there was not much that could be done, and compromises
in time and availability had to be made.
Even the rules for the IM sports had to be adjusted to deal with
the space restrictions. Football was changed from seven-on-seven to
four-on-four, the soccer fields were made smaller and even the type
of softball was changed. Instead of a regular softball, a more
spongy type of ball was used to keep balls from leaving the smaller
field.
“Initially, of course the changes were met with some
resistance, but people adjusted,” said Valentine Castro, who
deals with both the IM sports and club teams for the CRA.
“They realized that the changes were our way of ensuring that
the sports continued, even if they were slightly modified. I think
things worked out pretty well.”
The condition of the field was also an issue because of
overuse.
“The NAF was very nice at first, especially for field
hockey, because the grass was short, but as time went on, it got
more torn up and they had to shut it down a couple times because it
got so bad,” Lorang said.
The benefits of the construction that will be available when the
parking garage is completed will be new grass, improved irrigation,
as well as new lighting, which will add extra hours to field use
when the project is completed.
“In the end, it will be a better field,” Castro
said. “Things will definitely change for the positive. It is
a temporary setback that will pay dividends in the
future.”
Like most of the construction projects on campus, the students
that have to put up with all the hassles and inconveniences hardly
get to experience the benefits. The project is slated to be
completed in August 2003 and will provide an extra 1,500 parking
spaces under the field as well the improved IM Field.
At the beginning of year, the loss of the field space was a
major concern to both students and the administration, but the
administration’s forward planning and the students’
willingness to compromise has mitigated the loss of one of the
largest open spaces on campus.