Viewpoint School rolls out plans for new ball field

Viewpoint School athletes will no longer play home games off campus. The private, kindergarten through 12th-grade school at 23620 Mulholland Hwy. will soon get a new athletic field that’s suited for high school sports.

The new athletic field, which has already been approved by the city of Calabasas, will replace the current Reade Field and will include two new parking lots, bleachers, restrooms and storage facilities.

“We have two fields on our campus now,” said the school’s headmaster Robert Dworkoski. “We have an upper school field and we have Reade Field and they’re appropriate for most middle school sports, but they’re not large enough for high school soccer, high school football or high school baseball.” The Viewpoint high school athletic teams often use fields at Calabasas High School, Birmingham High School and Pierce College for their home games.

“We want to have our own field so our students won’t have to commute as much,” Dworkoski said.

Viewpoint Athletic Director Patrick Moyal said, “A regulationsized athletic field will accommodate our . . . large and successful soccer program.” “We have a major athletic program here,” Dworkoski said. “We offer competitive athletics for boys and girls from fifth grade through 12th grade. Every year we have over 100 different teams spread over three seasons.” This spring, three of the school’s teams captured championships, three teams finished their leagues in second place and one team is rated number one in its division, according to Dworkoski.

“We’ve had a lot of success here, and in past years we’ve had a lot of students go off and perform at the next level in athletics,” Dworkoski said. “We’ve long had good sports programs, but having our own field would be a huge improvement.

More students will be able to be at the games to cheer their classmates, and it’ll cut down on the times that students have to leave campus early to go to a game.” Viewpoint School has been raising funds for a school modernization project for the last few years, according to Dworkoski. “We’ve been in the process of raising money for several projects on the campus,” he said. “One of the projects, the new performing arts center with a 400seat theater and six classrooms for the performing arts and an academic building, will be completed next fall.” Dworkoski expects a groundbreaking on the athletic field project in the summer of 2006 with a completion date six months later. The project will cost Viewpoint $3.7 million to build, which includes the cost of constructing retaining walls and the parking lots.

The playing surface of the field will be made of polypropylene, a new generation of high quality synthetic grass, which will absorb shock when players fall, will remain in excellent condition throughout the year, and will offer resiliency and durability to sustain heavy use, according to Viewpoint spokesperson Andrea Rosas.

The new athletic field won’t include night lighting. The city of Calabasas won’t permit it due to the nuisance it would cause nearby residents.

Viewpoint School is a private coeducational, nonprofit, nonsectarian school. For more information, go to www.viewpoint.org.