GILROY—Christopher High’s new and stunning Don Christopher Sports Complex was marred sometime over the weekend after vandals ripped up part of the field.
A CHS staff member discovered the damage, an approximately 14-foot by 10-foot chunk of the artificial turf, early Monday morning when they entered the complex to use the track. It is estimated to cost around $10,000 to repair the field.
“It’s just hard to understand what people are thinking,” Cougar football coach Tim Pierleoni said. “A lot of people put a lot of their heart and soul into the field. The community is so proud of it and we’re so proud of it. It hurts a little bit.”
Lines cut into it seem to indicate vandals intended to take a larger piece, but principal Paul Winslow told KION they most likely gave up after it became too heavy.
Despite the damage, Pierleoni sees the silver lining. He said the vandalism serves as good life lesson to CHS students that things like this sometimes happen.
“It’s hard because we want the community to enjoy the field and that’s what it’s for. It’s not just for the school, but for the community too,” the Cougar coach said, noting the school’s staff is working on a strategy to keep the complex safe and open to the public. “We want to be able to have people use it and run on it, but that’s the problem. If you open it, then that’s the kind of stuff that happens and that’s just too bad.”
The complex opened on Sept. 5, 2014 and cost nearly $4 million, most of which was donated by Christopher Ranch owners Don and Karen Christopher.
“We’ll keep a stiff upper lip and we’ll bounce back, we’ll get it fixed,” Pierleoni said. “It’ll be just like new and we’ll move on.”
There is currently no timeline for when the repairs will be completed.
