The Skyline View

Date created: 2/14/05 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Liezl Laurel Members of Skyline´s baseball team watch the action on Skyline´s new field from seats that were once MVP field-level seats at 3Com (formerly Candlestick and 3Com) Park.

A multi-million dollar price tag is giving Skyline's Andreas Wolf, dean of physical education, every reason to smile. It is the cost to develop what's been deemed by Wolf, "the largest athletic redevelopment project, at college level, going on in the nation."

Since Skyline first opened its doors in 1969, field sports have been a vibrant part of the college's curriculum. And while Skyline's campus offers dazzling Pacific Ocean views, its moist and foggy climate is a serious setback when it comes to sustaining outdoor athletic grass fields.

On glorious clear blue sunny mornings, however, the gleaming green of Skyline's newly installed artificial turf fields can be an inspiring sight to approaching visitors, faculty, and students alike.

Three, of six district-wide, brand-new artificial turf fields, adorn the grounds of Skyline College, thanks to the vision of Chancellor Ron Galatolo of the San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD). Funds were secured in the form of an $18 million loan to pay for the athletics improvements, to be repaid over a 25-year period, according to SMCCCD's Barbara Christensen, director of community and government relations.

Considering the extent, scope and cost of the work involved, Christensen considers the amenities to be a "sports complex," with the possibility of adding an indoor soccer field in the future.

"We've always got dreams," Christensen said.

According to her, the main purposes of the project were to have improved safe and attractive facilities.

Wolf expressed the department's position from a quality perspective.

"Skyline now has a top quality facility with which to market, and attract, top quality, and potential star athletes," the athletic director said.

According to Wolf, the intentions are for the coaches to professionally develop skills that are already in place. But, now more than ever, Skyline has the facilities from which to "back up what we can offer that will make us competitive with other colleges like never before."

"A good day of play traditionally destroyed the grass grounds at Skyline, which resulted in fields riddled with pot holes and mud-a liability and an impossibility when trying to attract and encourage potential students that likely have choices elsewhere" he said.

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