New Lake Placid school fields won’t host rugby
By HEATHER SACKETT, For The EnterpriseLAKE PLACID - The Can-Am Rugby tournament will return to the Tri-Lakes area this weekend, but teams will not use the fields at the North Elba Horse Show grounds owned by the Lake Placid Central School District as planned.
There are three baseball diamonds and four soccer fields at the grounds, depending on how you arrange them, said school board president Dan Nardiello. Although the fields were supposed to have been ready for the rugby tournament to use this summer, the school board decided earlier this year not to let the tournament use them. Instead, the tournament was offered the use of one field at the elementary school, as well as the field inside the Olympic Oval.
"The concern earlier was that, with the children coming back to school in September, the fields would not have time to recover from that degree of usage," Nardiello said. "The grass hasn't fully grown in yet."
Interim Superintendent Ernie Stretton said that lacrosse tournaments will be using the fields later in the summer. He added that the district will try to rotate the fields used in events so none of them are over used. He said groups are usually charged about $2,500 to cover the cost of maintenance.
"Our goal is to maintain them and make them be among the best there are in the North Country," he said.
Tournament Director Jay Annis said that although this year's rugby tournament has 10 more teams - 100, up from 90 last year - he won't need the school's fields. He plans on using the six fields behind the airport runway owned by the town of North Elba. He said they were being lined on Wednesday. He added that using only one field in a location is not ideal.
"We like to have all the fields together," he said. "But I was hoping to use the inside of the oval for the under-19 bracket. I will try to do that for next year. It will be a fun showcase in the center of town to get people interested for the next year."
The tournament will use 13 fields in all, six in Lake Placid and five in Saranac Lake, and two back-up fields for practicing.
Annis said there are several international teams this year, including ones from Ireland, England and France. The number of teams in the women's division has also doubled, from 12 last year to 24 this year.
"To the whole rugby world, it's a showcase," Annis said. "Everybody tries to get here."
The Can-Am Rugby Tournament begins on Friday at 9 a.m. at Petrova Middle School in Saranac Lake and continues through Sunday.
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Contact Heather Sackett at the Lake Placid News at (518) 523-4401 or hsackett@lakeplacidnews.com.
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cd1lax13
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08-02-09 1:20 AM
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lax weekend is bigger than rugby in lp
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shipsaint
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07-31-09 6:40 PM
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rotating the fields are a good idea,very wise
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Zerrahn
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07-31-09 3:27 PM
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Why Lax over Rugby????? Rugby was using those fields first. Who's pocket is getting padded from the Lax tournament to use the fields????
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