High marks for STETHS field

[Sickko]

Mosiah Did you see this, how Aaron rated the field at Catherine Hall? Dont make the samemistakes as others who confuse the field at Howard Cooke Highway with the one at Catherine Hall





High marks for STETHS field <DIV class=KonaBody>

<B wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">By Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer[/B]


<B wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">Aaron Lawrence - Contributed [/B]

<B wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">The recently-refurbished St. Elizabeth Technical football field came in for high praises from the coaches of both Reno of Westmoreland and Naggo Head of St. Catherine, following their Wray and Nephew Nephew National Premier League match at the venue on Sunday.[/B] <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">"Looking at the field, I think it is a great field up here. We have to look at it and try to upgrade the other fields in Jamaica," said Aaron Lawrence, coach of Reno and former Reggae Boy who travelled the world with the national team.<P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">"Travelling over th e world and looking at some of the fields that I have seen, I would give it a grade five (with one being the highest) and this is on world standard," Lawrence added.

<B wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">Grade one fields[/B]

<P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">In Jamaica, Lawrence could not come up with a handful of fields that were in better condition. <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">"Apart from the National Stadium, Brancourt and Catherine Hall, I do not think there are any better fields. They are all grade one fields (by Jamaican standards). <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">Naggo Head coach, Harold Thomas, had just one word to describe it and he used it twice. <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">"Excellent. Excellent," he said. <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">The grass was of a good length, the bounce appeared true and the players were able to control, dribble and pass without hindrance. What could have prompted Lawrence to give it an average grade by the international standard was the fact that the field appeared uneven in parts. <P wIQZ7="0" g2Vt3="0">The transformation of the field from the rock hard surface, which is commonplace in bauxite areas, was facilitated by a $9 million donation from the Digicel Foundation, a charitable arm of the tele-communications company. </DIV>

[Mosiah]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

<DIV>

Sickko (10/26/2006)</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>"Apart from the National Stadium, Brancourt and Catherine Hall, I do not think there are any better fields. They are all grade one fields (by Jamaican standards). </DIV><DIV class=KonaBody>

</DIV><DIV class=KonaBody></DIV><DIV class=KonaBody>"by Jamaican standards" - because people in the USA would not be as excited as we are about these fields, truss mi!</DIV><DIV class=KonaBody></DIV><DIV class=KonaBody>A few years ago I watched a match between Tivoli and another side at Lockhart stadium. In making my way to my seat, I walked right beside the field and wondered if it was artificial turf or natural grass. I'm talking right beside! Only when I plucked a few blades of the grass did I realize that it was indeed natural. There is no field in Jamaica that would have you thinking twice about whether it is natural or artificial.</DIV><DIV class=KonaBody></DIV><DIV class=KonaBody>So yes, I like what they did to STETHS and a few other fields (Brancourt has raised the bar) but I still think we can get to another level. But if we had 10 fields as good as STETHS we would be that much further in our football development.</DIV>

[Sickko]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

The field at Catherine Hall was not build by Jamaican standards but by World Classed standards and has miles of pipes running under the surface to help with drainage etc...also the grass is not bedded in just dirt but a composite mixtures.



When they took up the grass to re-sod the national stadium field prior to the last World Cup qualifying campaign, they did so easily as the grass was planted in squares that can be lifted out and put back down easily.

[Mosiah]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

<DIV>Siccko, I couldn't care less whofah standards it build to. There are probably thousands of fields in the USA that far surpass our stadium field. A lie mi a tell?</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>In fact, a year ago when an MLS all-star played Real Madridin Spain, the thing that Shalrie Joseph remembered most was the state of their fields, He said that they took it to another level. Imagine, therefore, how far behind we are!</DIV>

[Sickko]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

Oh another thing, it took us about half hour to get out of Frome yesterday after the Ben Francis KO game, (thank God there was not a medical emergency) amnd one zealot backed me up to ask my thoughts on the Frome surface.



I told him that it was not a good one for football then he started talking about Jarrett Park's surface and I had to stop him and ask him what does Jarrett Park's surface and good fields have to do with each other.



Some people have a local perspective and cant widen their thinking

[Sickko]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

Oh I do agree that our national stadium field is not even the best in the island, but I was talking about the field at Catherine Hall.



You are talking about Lockhart, I was at the University of Miami one weekend when they had a jamaican reunion among the South Florida Colleges and one of the fields that some seven a side football was being played on was so luch and rich I checked it out myself to see if it was real, not only was it real but the grass blades were so thick and the green was dark it made you wonder.



And this wa snot even a practice field for the University by the way...just one of the many tyhey had

[Mosiah]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

But remember, it was the Catherine Hall field that they raided to put in the stadium, and as far as I know, they didn't just put it down so-so-suh, but had some boasy irrigation and drainage system put in place prior. And, sorry to say, as decent a surface it is, it has never really impressed me, not with all the little high school surfaces I've come across in the USA.

[Sickko]

RE: High marks for STETHS field

Interesting choice of terms when you say 'raided". I was in full support of them taking up the sod and improving the stadium field, matter of fact I was hoping they would grow back the sod and then move it to say Drax Hall or Frome or any other field that needs grass.



The protest you heard or read about was a political exercise by an MP who did not have a clue and I told him to his face that he was being an ass. Not at the actual demonstration but later when I saw him one away.



Clive Mullings might be bright and one of the people who if he wins his seat and the JLP wins the next General Election (snicker) would be a cabinet member.



At the time the Catherine Hall facility was not been used for any football activity at all and so no team or community would be losing its service, additionally, the facility is owned by the government who was taking sod to another of the facilities it owns and operates, who was losing anything????



why then were they demonstrating?



Just to make noise I suppose or to get a free Heineken which was what I hear was being handed out to back gray back man who should have been at work at that time of the day instead of demonstrating about some thing they did not own or had nothing to do with.