After a summer field inspection from CCSD that determined Clark’s football field was unsafe for contact sports, many students worried that Clark football would repeat last year’s 1-8 losing season.

“During the summer, the news of losing our field definitely made us lose a ton of morale. We lost some players due to it, and the energy in the days following dropped,” says varsity right tackle Anthony Hernandez.

Now that the field is unusable for the team, no home games will be played at Clark, including our annual Homecoming game. Instead, Homecoming will be held at Sam Boyd Stadium. Meanwhile, regular home games will take place at Bonanza High School.

“We are homeless as a team, and no one wants to compete on a competitor’s field,” says Coach Pickens. “We have to do fundraising, as we’ve lost concessions without a home field.”

Despite the challenge of losing their football field, the team has still managed to succeed in their first games of the season.

“We realized that this is just another bit of adversity we had to go through. Pouting about it won’t let us win games, so we lifted ourselves up and kept working through it,” continues Hernandez. The results speak for themselves – the Chargers are already surpassing last year’s expectations, and have won two out of their last three games.

Working with the new field has meant some changes to the team’s routine. The Varsity, JV, and Freshman B Team have to share the girl’s smaller softball field, while the girl’s flag football team practices at Cashman Middle School and the Boy’s and Girl’s Club.

These disadvantages won’t last long, says Mrs. Halverson, Clark’s Athletic Advisor. Construction on the new field is scheduled to start next January, and will finish replacing the field with higher quality AstroTurf by the end of the year. This field is expected to last for another twenty years before further improvements need to be made.

“I know we have to overcome more adversity than our teams in past years, but I know that we can do better [because] of everything we’re going through. I hope no team takes pity on us for not having a home, as we intend to come out and ball out! Charger Strong!” finishes Hernandez.

Clark’s fourth game of the season is on September 13th at Chaparral High School.