We’re used to the buses to and from the Academy or Tropical Park. When we do get the chance to have access to the Side or Main Field, it is almost always shared with a boys junior varsity team.

Who are we, you may ask? The girls. Female athletes are notoriously second tear when it comes to being considered for access to the field as well as to equipment and amenities such as water and coolers. Male athletes, meanwhile, are complaining about having to relocate for practice due to the construction of the side field, but female athletes  have been having to go through this for their entire high school careers if their season is coexisting with a boys team. If not being able to practice on the side field and being forced to relocate to a different location for practice is considered a point of contention for the construction of the side field, it is slightly premature, as girls sports teams have had to travel across Dade County in search of practice space. 

Additionally, there is nothing we can do about this impending construction. It has to happen in order for future generations of students to be able to reap the benefits of this addition to the school and it is better now than later that we begin to undergo construction. The school, as an entity, decided upon relocating the Miller Campus in order to avoid the many issues that accompany students having to either take a bus, which comes late due to traffic often, or drive themselves. In order for this to be possible, the space where the Side Field is located must be emptied so Crossbridge Church to be able to relocate. Although it may seem an inconvenience, it will make the school a better place for future generations. 

I am against the field being redone because it is going to cause me to never be able to play a home football game and possibly a lacrosse game ever again in high school. When the field gets redone, we would have to ride a bus to somewhere else everyday to practice and play. For football, we would have to play all of our games 30 minutes away in Homestead or we would have to play on Wednesday or Thursday at Tropical Park. When the field starts to be redone, it will be the end of me playing football on our home field forever. 

I also play lacrosse and if anything goes wrong with the construction it could also put lacrosse at risk. Meaning that I could potentially never play another sport at Gulliver. I would have to go somewhere for both sports and never get the experience of playing at home as a senior. Having to play and practice on another field will take away from the experience of playing high school sports.

I think that they should have planned it out better and found out what to do with the sports that use it before they decided to get rid of it. There isn’t a plan for what is going to happen to the sports that use the fields and it will most likely be chaotic as things change and different sports have to move around and practice at different places. I think they should have found a way to have at least one of the fields available for use before putting both of them offline. It sounds like a very rushed and not fully thought out plan that should have been looked at more thoroughly.

I am overall just not happy with having to go somewhere else to play and practice and find it very unfair. The decision making process was not well thought out and looked over and think that they should have thought a little bit more before making the decision. I am very against it and feel like it shouldn’t happen until it it fully thought through and decided on.