United Quest Park practice field (early spring, 2021):
Our usual Quest Park practice field is Quest field 7, which is natural grass. It’s a nice field, but during cooler weather, it holds water after rainy days and may get closed due to soggy grass.
When field 7 is closed, we usually try to reserve the Quest Park “puddle jumper court” instead of canceling. This is the outdoor rink play area on the left as you drive toward the Quest Park clubhouse.
The puddle jumper court has an asphalt surface covered by re-purposed artificial turf. Turf shoes are the best footwear for this surface, with sneakers the 2nd choice. Soccer cleats aren’t recommended.
In past years, the “field 7 or puddle jumper?” question was a minor matter. But an outside event has made it a bigger matter for early 2021.
Why the post?
The puddle jumper lights were recently damaged and made unusable by a tree branch during a windstorm. Replacement parts have been ordered, but a fix date is not yet available. This doesn’t affect us if grass fields are open, because field 7 has lights that still work. But we’ll face a daylight issue if we use the puddle jumper court. The puddle jumper court gets dark around 6:15 prior to the start of Daylight Saving Time. So in order to have a full practice, we’ll need to start at 5:00 PM.
Practice plan A, 5:30 @ Quest Park field 7:
If Quest field 7 is open, we’ll stick with Plan A, our usual schedule: 5:30-6:45 PM. Quest field 7 is a lighted field, so sunset won’t stop our practice.
Practice plan B, 5:00 @ Quest puddle jumper court:
If Quest field 7 is closed, we’ll try to reserve the Quest puddle jumper court. If field 7 is closed and we were able to reserve the puddle jumper court, we’ll switch to Plan B, shifting practice to the 5:00-6:15 PM time slot to give us plenty of daylight.
How will I know if we’re on Plan A or Plan B?
NTH usually makes the decision to open / close fields by 3:30 PM. We’ll post our Junior Academy Girls practice status on our Twitter account and phone hot-line by 4 PM.
Weather and field status communication channels:
- Junior Academy Girls Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg. (You don’t need a Twitter account of your own in order to check our Junior Academy Twitter feed.)
- Junior Academy Girls phone hot-line: 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870
This is only a temporary issue. It goes away once the puddle jumper lights are fixed, or Daylight Saving Time goes into effect (March 14, 2021).