|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The City of East Palo Alto and the Ravenswood School District are set to construct the city’s first ever football field at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy, a local elementary school, following years of fundraising for the multimillion dollar project.
Like many other local teams, East Palo Alto’s youth football players can’t play home games in the city. The existing grass field has two goal posts but isn’t quite regulation size and doesn’t have the necessary striping, so it has remained a practice field.
The improved field at 2033 Pulgas Ave. will offer artificial grass, a functioning drainage system, a walk path around the perimeter, new scoreboards, bleachers and entrances, as well as basins and planters that will help with water runoff, according to Ravenswood Assistant Superintendent Will Eger.
Construction on the new field began last week and is set to conclude in early 2026. The field updates are the latest step in a complete campus rebuild.
Project leaders announced the construction at a Sept. 20 event on the field, inviting local officials, 49ers representatives and youth who ran around the field, throwing footballs with Niners’ mascot Sourdough Sam.
“Seeing the announcement about new construction at the Ronald McNair field brings a mix of nostalgia and excitement,” Council member Webster Lincoln wrote in a message to this publication. “That space shaped so many of us, and knowing future generations will have an even better place to play, learn, and grow is truly meaningful.”
Lincoln grew up playing on the field for East Palo Alto’s football team the Nabata Yero Warriors, before they became the Mastodons.
The field wasn’t just a place to play, he said, it was a hub where kids with various different backgrounds could connect.
“This is the ultimate collaboration, to see this come together,” Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, said at the event. “It’s much more than a patch of grass, it’s an investment in the future.”
In 2022, the City and school district funded the new field designs and have since sought out construction funding, which includes the $1.6 million in federal funds that the city obtained through Mullin’s office.
Various other nonprofits contributed to the $4.2 million project. These include the NFL Legacy Grant, Ravenswood Education Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, 49ers Foundation and the Bay Area Host Committee, which works to support economic development through its Sports for All Initiative.
“This site, soon to be a sports for all hub, will be the first football-sized field in East Palo Alto,” CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee Zaileen Janmohamed said at the event.
The football field borders three schools and a Boys and Girls Club. It is set to offer year-round access to the school district, community organizations and Mastodons Youth Football, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park-based youth football organization.
“The community supports access to great facilities, great education, and there are going to be quality citizens who are going to come out of this East Palo Alto community because of this partnership that will help with the development of the next generation,” former East Palo Alto Mayor Larry Moody said.
