HUMBOLDT — K.B. Criss has a recurring dream.
He sees Humboldt High’s track team practicing next spring on a new track at the east edge of town.
Then he awakes, knowing that to make the dream come true, “everything will have to go absolutely perfect.”
Still, USD 258 is on the road to having a new sports complex with a more realistic deadline by the time classes start next fall.
“I think that’s doable,” said Criss, district superintendent, with plans for the complex laid across a conference table in his office.
TO UNDERSTAND what’s happening requires a journey back to a board retreat of 10 years ago.
“Several goals were discussed, some short-term, some medium-term, some long-term,” Criss said, as he reviewed notes from the retreat. “We’ve accomplished a lot of our goals and a long-term one was to provide track and field facilities for our students.
“We’re the only school in our league (Tri-Valley) without a track and one of the few 3A schools in Kansas without a track,” Criss said.
After-school track practice is on streets near the high school.
“We have safety concerns,” he said. “The streets seem to be getting smaller and there seems to be more traffic. We worry about a kid getting hurt.”
When board members embraced the track-construction goal, they, too, dreamed of a sports complex that included a track and football field, as well as fields for baseball and softball, sports that HHS student-athletes have excelled in during recent seasons.
“Board members realized that our facilities for football and baseball at Walter Johnson Field were deteriorating,” Criss said, noting temporary fencing has to be erected each baseball season. Softball is played at Sweatt Park, at the southeast corner of town about a mile from Walter Johnson.
“We don’t have lockers there (Walter Johnson),” he said. Restrooms are on the primitive side and the concession stand is barely adequate.
“We decided building at one location would be much better,” he said. “We have parents with a son playing baseball and a daughter softball, often at the same time, which means they have to run back and forth between the two fields.”
