With no running water or room to change, Olney High students lament deteriorating athletic facilities

On a frigid winter afternoon, with snow flurries falling from the sky, Olney High’s lacrosse team practiced on its dilapidated football field — a shell of a stadium with seating ripped out, an uneven dirt field, and peeling paint.

At the athletic complex adjacent to the imposing school at Front and Duncannon, conditions are subpar, at best.

There is no running water, no bathrooms, no track, and virtually no seating for spectators. The Olney fieldhouse, long in rough shape, was recently condemned by the city, so athletes have no place to change. The baseball team has no benches, but at least there’s a real backstop; the softball team has a makeshift backstop against some trees, and spectators and players alike enter through a rusty opening in the fence.

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Some sports can’t play home games at Olney because its fields fall short of Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association standards.

A group of Olney athletes and teachers appealed to the Philadelphia School District and school board recently to fix it, asking for a public financial commitment for improvements.

“Playing softball is very dangerous,” Olney student Ysis Rivera said at the meeting. “Running around and falling into holes is dangerous. Sliding into home plate is dangerous because of the many sticks and branches that can potentially injure you.”

Anthony Pugh, an Olney senior and athlete, said it’s tough not having lights or a place to change or store equipment or other personal belongings.

“Many students have gotten things stolen … because we don’t have locker rooms, and we have to get dressed outside,” said Pugh.

“When we have people come to see us play, they have to stand up or sit on the ground because we don’t have benches,” said Joselyn Rodriguez, another student. “It would be nice to have people come to watch us play.”

Marjorie Tribbitt, a parent whose daughter attends Olney, also lamented the conditions of the sprawling fields frequently used not just by students and community groups, but also by families in the neighborhood — 335,000 square feet spanning an entire city block, according to district records.

“It needs to be fixed, it needs to be taken care of, it needs a lot of love so the Olney community and Olney students will say, ‘Hey, the district cares about us, we mean something.’” Tribbitt told the school board.

The Olney community has been told it would cost $19 million to bring the complex up to PIAA standards, to add things like a real track, turf, lights, and more.

Monique Braxton, a district spokesperson, said the school system has committed $350,000 for some improvements that will be made this spring.

Olney’s soccer team had a strong season, going 10-3 and taking home a championship.

But it’s always frustrating to play at home, said Emmanuel Itzep, a sophomore midfielder. People get injured; the ball hops strangely because of the uneven ground.

“There’s a lot of bumps in the field,” said Itzep. “We need better fields.”

It’s eye-opening to travel to other fields, said Moise Ceus, a senior. “When we go to away games, we see their fields, and they’re beautiful,” said Ceus.

Jorge Gonzalez, an Olney Spanish teacher and the school’s athletic director, said the field conditions affect the school’s ability to attract students.

“A lot of kids want to go to Northeast, to schools with better fields,” said Gonzalez, who also worries about the Title IX implications of Olney’s fields. The softball field is in especially poor shape.

“The absence of changing facilities such as locker rooms, bathrooms, water station, benches and safety fences could be seen as a violation of federal law, which requires the male and female teams receive equal access to safe and functional facilities,” Gonzalez told the school board.

Gonzalez and students said the bathroom situation is particularly distressing. Male athletes will urinate under the bleachers or behind bushes, but female athletes typically have to find someone to drive them to the closest Wawa or gas station, taking significant time out of a game or practice.

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Nina Abrams always felt like she was asking her athletes to take chances when she coached the Olney softball team; there’s a large divot in front of the pitcher’s rubber and a large metal grate in the outfield.

“Imagine players trying to track a fly ball, not looking, wearing spikes,” said Abrams, a former Olney teacher. “It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

Michael Roth, Olney’s principal, said the school has made strides since it returned to the district after being controlled by the ASPIRA charter network. Students can now choose from eight courses of study, and the school posted its best academic scores in a decade this past year.

“The school district has done some really good things, and they’re starting to invest in Olney High School, and we’re really grateful for that,” Roth told the school board. “We still think there’s a long way to go, and not enough has happened yet.”

City Council is paying attention.

Councilmember Anthony Phillips said addressing the needs of the Olney athletic complex was crucial, and that while he’s had positive conversations with the district about field improvements, more movement is needed. Though the district is in the midst of a system-wide facilities planning process, some needs are urgent, Phillips said.

“What we’re looking for is essentially that type of development in our city, particularly in an area in the city that has not received any public dollars when it comes to public facility planning in a long time,” said Phillips, whose district includes Olney. “We don’t want the Band-Aid anymore. We want the full investment.”

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of the education committee, is keenly interested in the Olney situation, too; Thomas is also a high school basketball coach and sits on the PIAA board.

“We want to celebrate our young people and our athletes right now, and we are just not putting them on a road to success to celebrate them,” said Max Weisman, Thomas’ spokesperson. “Olney’s not the only school with this issue, and if we aren’t letting Philadelphia public schools be competitive, we’re sending the message to our young people, ‘Don’t come to public schools,’ and we’re sending the message to our families, ‘Don’t come to Philly.’”

Abrams, the former Olney softball coach, said district officials must think of the message they’re sending to Olney students by forcing them to play on fields that would be unacceptable elsewhere.

“In a world where the deck is already stacked against them in so many ways, I want to know how I look them in the eyes and tell them we really do care when there’s so much evidence around them that shows them that’s not the case,” Abrams said. “They deserve better.”