A youth football team in Kansas is looking for an alternative after its field was destroyed by vandals.
Over the weekend, vandals did donuts in trucks at Heim’s Electric Park in Kansas City’s East Bottoms. The field is home to the Missouri Wolverines, which includes about 200 players ranging from K-8.
The trucks created major ruts from one side of the field to the other, stretching up and down the field for at least 50 yards. It’s the sixth time someone has damaged the field, according to the local Fox affiliate.
“Vandalism and property destruction due to vehicles is a big problem across our system. We’ve experienced a significant uptick in destruction caused by vehicles,” said Kansas City Interim Parks and Recreation director Roosevelt Lyons.
The team’s coach, Jim Tuso, met Tuesday with city officials and addressed the team, telling them “we’re going to practice as normal. Keep moving forward and try to make the best of a bad situation right now.”
Practice was nevertheless disrupted, as the team tried to find patches of level ground in areas around the park. The city says it is now going to put in bollards and short posts around the field to keep cars off.
“If it was up to the city they would put dirt out and seed it and wait for it to grow next year. Well that’s not really going to work. We’ve got 200 kids looking for a place to play this year,” Coach Tuso said.
