High school football without home because of turf trouble

By Siafa Lewis

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    MEDIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A high school football team is without a home because of turf trouble. As the Upper Darby Royals kicked off against Penncrest in Media, there are still a lot of questions about the whole situation.

Throughout the Delaware Valley, these are the sights and the sounds of Friday night lights, high school football in all its glory.

Sadly, for the boys on the Upper Darby High School football team, they’ll experience no such joy and raucous atmosphere at home this season. Their new home field isn’t safe, the school district says.

At Upper Darby’s game in Media against Penncrest on Friday night, Eyewitness News spoke with some parents.

“It’s very disheartening, especially for the kids,” Jill Brignola, a UDHS parent, said.

One mother told us she felt it was preventable.

“There has been rumors since it’s been installed that there was an issue,” Trish Watling said. “The fact that it’s just coming about now after kids have already been hurt and we’re already well into our season, it could have been addressed sooner. A lot sooner.”

Another question is if the incident at Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School late last month, which police say involved a minor fight but no gunshots as had been reported and feared didn’t influence this decision.

“They played on it all summer,” Catrina Henneghan said. “Now they can’t play on it at all? And they can’t play home games. That hit them pretty hard. So they were thinking that could it be linked to the Bonner situation that ‘Upper Darby is not a good team, that Upper Darby don’t have good kids?”

And the issues involved here may run deeper than just a football field.

“They deserve a lot better than what this district has given them,” Watling said.

The disappointment and frustration run deep for Upper Darby High School players and their parents, though there has been a pleasant byproduct of not being able to play at home.

“The schools that we have been going up against have been very supportive and welcoming to us,” Margaret Hoque said. “It’s a like a big extended family. They’re opposing teams, there’s a camaraderie.”

However …

“There’s nothing playing on your home field,” Henneghan said. “And you have seniors here that they want to be home. It’s just different when you’re home. You take your shoes off different.”

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