By Michael Letendre

After the Bristol Central softball program went to the state championship game in Class LL a couple weeks ago, along with the run Bristol Eastern made in postseason play, it magnified the need for better facilities in town for our scholastic programs.

And it’s a glaring need, frankly.

But it isn’t all bad.

Our football fields are new and glorious, the gymnasiums for volleyball, wrestling’s and boys and girls hoop are very good, and our soccer, track, and lacrosse teams also enjoy all-weather surfaces.

But what about baseball and softball squads in town?

Does anyone whose played on our fields in those sports think we have superior — or even comparable — surfaces to compete and play on compared to, say, Plainville?

It’s not even close and in terms of maintenance of these facilities, it’s severely lacking.

And just because each school has an individual cutting the grass on the fields, it doesn’t mean things are being handled correctly.

In case you didn’t know, field maintenance is a science (sports engineer).

A dedicated individual (or individuals) help keep athletes playing safely and efficiently on well-maintained fields and facilities.

If you’re lucky, someone in your town or city has such an education.

But in Bristol, you don’t need a college degree to truly take care of those fields.

However, we need experts that know what they’re doing and that’s a huge failure in Bristol when anyone other than a Bristol Parks and Recreation Department individual is “working” on our fields.

In facts, why aren’t Bristol Park Department personnel in town working on those fields at Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern?

Is it as simple as the Board of Education having the wrong people maintaining the fields?

We shouldn’t expect custodians to know exactly how to work and groom the fields and currently, that’s the case in Bristol.

Why is that?

Why can’t we have Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services taking care of every public school field in town?

Since the beginning of time, coaches of several programs in Bristol usually are the ones that take the lead in fixing problem areas such as working on the pitcher’s mound, grooming the batter’s box, running the foul lines and the like.

Thinking about former Bristol Eastern coach Mike Giovinazzo and his first season of coaching the Lancers’ baseball team back in 1975, it was a unique experience for him and his talented team.

Giovinazzo and his players would bring in tools and equipment to work on the field from home.

Now, maybe that was all good and well, back when the United States and Iran were friends and the high schools in town were relatively new.

Very bluntly, if I saw a young Pete Losey — a former catcher for the Bristol Eastern baseball program — walking around the infield with a pitchfork and perhaps a steel rake, I’m running in any direction besides his.

But that was another place and another time.

And speaking of time, it’s time to get the right people to work on our scholastic fields in town.

Enough is enough.

And the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department could and would do an excellent job at our schools, not just at Central and Eastern.

Need a real life example?

Just look at what happened to the Bristol Central softball team over its three-day extravaganza against Cheshire in second round state tournament play from Casey Field.

Halfway through the contest on June 2, the rain came and the contest had to be delayed once again.

The following morning, the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department was all over that field and by the time the squad from Cheshire arrived at Casey Field, the facility was in tremendous shape.

Maybe Casey isn’t the favorite venue of several coaches in town but that day, the Rams were allowed to — at the very least — play and compete in town, enjoying its home field advantage (maybe that advantage should have been enjoyed from the softball field at BCHS instead?!?).

It’s a big deal to have playable surfaces run by the correct department in Bristol.

Field maintenance is a big deal and the city must develop a solution to what’s becoming an embarrassing situation.

Frankly, this part of the story is just scratching the surface of a much bigger problem in Bristol.

There’s a bigger issue here in terms of Bristol’s inferior fields and places of play for our baseball and softball teams.

And it’s a bigger problem than you think.

Unless you start letting softball programs play games at Muzzy Field — which will never happen — please be prepare for another conversation next Sunday in TBE.

And the theme of the conversion will be something along the lines of [literally] evening the playing field for all our athletes in town — something Bristol is failing to do compared to other surrounding towns.

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