Mount Si teams find home on the road in 2004

Published 11:44 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE VALLEY – Many Mount Si High School sport teams will have to bring home with them wherever they go this coming school year.

By the first day of school next fall, the district hopes to be putting the finishing touches a new $10-million athletic facility that will include a new football field, soccer field, track and field area and diamonds for baseball and softball. The school’s basketball arena also will be getting a facelift and expansion.

This year, however, teams will be playing on the road during construction. The fall sports most affected by construction, football and girls’ soccer, will be played at other schools in and out of the district.

All the varsity football home games this fall will be at Issaquah High School. Most of those home games will be on Friday night, but some will have to be moved around. The annual Valley Cup game against Cedarcrest, which has moved to another conference, will be on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 11, rather than the end of the season. The Sept. 23 game against Sammamish will be on a Thursday, as will the season closer on Nov. 4 against Mercer Island. In a bit of irony, Mount Si’s game against Issaquah on Friday, Oct. 8 is officially a home game in Issaquah.

Mount Si High School Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Greg Hart said getting all the fans out to Issaquah shouldn’t be a problem, as long as they remember no one can park on Second Street, which runs right by the high school. Hart said that if transportation turns out to be a problem, the school may arrange for buses to take parents out to the school.

“We’ll see how the first game goes,” he said.

Hart also wanted to convey to students and fans the need to leave the field better than they found it.

“We need to take care of the field as if it were our own,” he said.

All other games should be closer to home. Junior varsity and ‘C’ team football games will take place at Chief Kanim Middle School.

Most of the girls’ soccer games will take place at the soccer fields at the community park in the Snoqualmie Ridge neighborhood. Junior varsity and ‘C’ team soccer games will take place at Snoqualmie Middle School.

Winter sports, basketball, volleyball and wrestling still are planned to take place at home.

There is still plenty of work to do. The schedule for spring sports, which Hart said will be the hardest to relocate, is still in limbo.

For this upcoming season, though, fans will be asked to bring their hometown spirit to home games at another field.

Football coach Charlie Kinnune said the team is thinking about bringing the goal post wraps so players can see a little bit of red among the Issaquah Eagle purple that adorns their stadium. In the end, both Hart and Kinnune said a little inconvenience will be nothing compared to the facility students will get to play in next year. Besides, Kinnune has his mind on other things.

“This is a good time of year [pre-season practice],” Kinnune said. “We feel good about our leadership [on the team] and are very optimistic.”

* Mount Si will play Cedarcrest at 1 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 11, at Issaquah High School.