What is causing the boys soccer team to have to walk half a mile east to practice everyday? Well, the answer requires a bit of history.
In the spring of 2013, a new field was created for the campus on the corner of McGaw and Rosemarie.

Kept safe and playable for teams to practice on, the company that built it, Bothman, took back maintenance of the field in May 2015 and kept it sustainable until early July. They then turned the responsibility back over to Stockton Unified.

However, because of some sort of miscommunication, Stagg was not notified of this change. This led to an unusable field for the boys soccer team to practice on.

“It was handed over to the district,” said Tony Espinoza, athletic director. “At that point, it wasn’t getting watered, and it wasn’t getting maintained.”

Due to the communication error because of the soccer field, the team would have to find another area to practice. With the space behind the baseball field unworkable due to its condition, causing it to be a safety issue, their only option for a sufficient place to practice would be the turf in the football field.

Yet, with already three football teams practicing there, adding another two soccer teams was not going to work.
The team was without a practice field to use on campus. Luckily, having worked with the University of Pacific in the past, the school was more than willing to lend a helping hand.

“We went, we took it upon ourselves to find the soccer team a home because if not, we would’ve had five teams sharing the turf,” Espinoza said.

Then, there was the coach. One would suspect that this would strike as a troublesome setback for varsity coach James Marrone. Despite the inconvenience of being unable to play on their own field, Marrone didn’t have a problem with the switch at all.

Rather than focusing on the field, he was focused on get the boys ready for this season. “We are really resilient and excited in the fact that we have a place to play,” said Marrone. Some players, however, have different views of this switch. “It’s just the different type of playing,” said senior Luis Gomez on the varsity team. “The grass is bigger, and UOP is smaller.”

His teammate, senior Avel Chavez, doesn’t mind at all and stands with his coach. “It’s not a problem for me because it’s not far from the school,” said Chavez. “For me, I’m fine with it.”

While some players complain about the walk, Marrone said that the shift of fields “was awesome. It worked out perfectly.”