Rain Is Putting A Damper On Football Practice For Sacramento State

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee
Written by Tim Casey
April 11, 2006

Sacramento State football coach Steve Mooshagian understands he faces obstacles. A recent predicament drives home that point even more.

Because of the miserable weather and poor field conditions on campus, the Hornets have moved some of their spring practices to Cordova and Foothill high schools.

Cordova has a Sports Field synthetic surface and drainage system, while Foothill has artificial turf. So, their fields are in much better condition than Sac State's, which has grass.

Sac State has rented the high school fields a few times since beginning practice late last month. NCAA rules stipulate that teams can have 15 spring practices over a 29-day period.

Because Sac State started practice more than two weeks ago, it cannot wait for its field to dry or else it would risk not having 15 practices.

Mooshagian said this shows that Sac State should have artificial turf, although he doubts the university has funds to cover the expense. Last week, the university announced the football team would have a new field house by late 2007 that would include coaches' offices, a weight room, meeting room and other amenities. Sac State also envisions renovations to the football stadium, but there are no plans to follow through.

"We just had to go to Plan B," Mooshagian said. "We've had to deal with stuff like this before. We've been keeping our mouth shut and working knowing our shortcomings."

Meanwhile, UC Davis also has moved its schedule back a week because of the weather.

The Aggies have grass fields, too. They plan on beginning practice April 17 on campus and have not made contingency plans if the rain continues.