By:Andrew Coen
According to AFC co-president Andrew Tarica, through private funds from the all volunteer group, the two little league fields at Ogden Elementary School as well as the Hewlett High School varsity baseball field at Hewlett Elementary School are going to be redone. Tarica also said the space in between the two Ogden baseball fields will also be redone to create a refurbished all purpose field, which could be the home of a future girls' lacrosse program that the school does not now have. The Hewlett boys' lacrosse team formerly played their games at Ogden before the new field turf surface was installed at the football field last year. "This will give the district another all-purpose field to have use of," said Tarica.
The projects are expected to be completed by the fall, according to Tarica. "It will be 100 percent privately funded," said Tarica of the funds for the projects.
The three baseball fields at Ogden and Hewlett Elementary will be completely re-soded, re-graded and drained with new irrigation. "These fields were in terrible shape and now they will be much improved," said Tarica. The group is in the process of finalizing contracts to begin the work on the fields.
Last fall with the help of AFC's fundraising a new field turf playing surface was opened at Hewlett High School for the school's football and lacrosse team as well as some soccer games. The field is also used for youth soccer teams. The competition field turf system is similar to natural grass except that it is cost effective and durable like artificial turf and has a much softer surface of sand and in-fill system that decreases the chance of injury.
The mission of the AFC is to develop a comprehensive plan to improve the athletic facilities to a level that the athletic and community deserve. Four men who play a major role in the AFC raising the necessary funds for the projects at Ogden, and Hewlett Elementary as well as the field turf project at the high school are Tarica, Mark Baron, Jack Seibald and Mark Bershad.
