IUSD approved a plan to install field lights to extend the usability of sports fields for evening practices and events at Northwood during a board meeting on Nov. 19.
With Northwood being the only school in IUSD aside from Woodbridge without field lighting, the initiative will address issues such as limited field space and game scheduling conflicts, according to athletics director Erik Terry.
“We want to minimize the amount of time students are out of class, so lights would allow us to start a contest later,” Terry said. “The sun is setting earlier and earlier, so we’re pushing against that threshold. Other teams who want to use the facility are having to find more creative ways to use the turf.”
For example, with over five separate groups of boys and girls soccer, teams often have to share limited space, sometimes forcing teams to practice at Meadowood Park. Lacrosse teams also struggle to find time on the field and are forced to practice in the morning. The practice schedules of fall sports, in particular, are impacted by heat and limited daylight.
“The heat caused us to have to shift our practices, and we couldn’t shift them later in the day because as the sun was setting we were losing daylight,” Terry said. “We had to limit how much we practice, and the lights would just allow us to extend into the evening when the temperature drops.”
Field lights would also enable athletes on lower sports teams to have equal opportunities to practice without having to relocate or even skip out on practices entirely in order to accommodate varsity teams.
“I think having lights would definitely make it easier for teams to organize games,” varsity boys soccer player junior Howard Jung said. “Right now, each team has to play on a different field at the same time, so having school lights would give some of the lower teams like JV and frosh the opportunity to actually play home games at Northwood.”
Along with the Northwood teams, other groups that use Northwood facilities will also gain access to the field for events in the evening, according to IUSD Coordinator of Facilities Planning Jesse Barron.
While a definitive timeline or budget hasn’t been set, IUSD held a community feedback meeting on Nov. 5 to address concerns and gather input. However, the process of installing field lights presents unique challenges, including a required environmental review that assesses traffic, noise and light glare impacts. IUSD has worked with Northwood to define field usage and hours of operation, which Barron said will be factored into the environmental review.
“We want to make sure we’re being clear with what our intended hours of operation are, what the light glare is going to be to the community and to the surrounding natural habitat,” Barron said. “Field lights tend to create the most robust environmental study that you need to do outside of building an entire high school.”
This renovation is expected to take two years, with the necessary steps involving investigating environmental safety and other external factors that may delay the process.
