A community thrives by pulling together

A few weeks ago, on a beautiful April day, I looked across the Outdoor Sports Center and marveled at what I saw. Green California hills served as a backdrop to equally green sports fields where an assortment of games played out across the freshly mowed grass
A few weeks ago, on a beautiful April day, I looked across the Outdoor Sports Center and marveled at what I saw. Green California hills served as a backdrop to equally green sports fields where an assortment of games played out across the freshly mowed grass. Collegiate youth played for a shot at the national frisbee championships; recreational volleyball players romped and rallied; a hoard of spectators watched an adult rugby championship unfold, and scattered throughout were the brightly colored uniforms of so many kid’s soccer matches. I wondered, how did we get here?

Almost a year ago, the City chose the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance to operate and maintain the Center, but how did it all start? How did our community get so many sports grass fields in one place?

Virginia Lomanto lives next door to the Outdoor Sports Center, in the same spot she for 91 years. In 1915, her father, Pietro Giordano, worked in a market in San Francisco and also had a business in Saratoga pruning trees. Land was expensive up north, so he moved to Morgan Hill and bought a grape farm on what now comprises the Outdoors Sports Center, the Aquatics Center and surrounding farmland. Lomanto remembers sleeping in the barn when she was very young, and she also remembers how all the neighbors helped them build their house on the land. She said the “community really pulled together back then.”

Giordano soon realized that since grapes sold for $10 a ton, there must be a better crop to grow, and he planted prunes, cherries and walnuts. He dug a well that the county used to fill the waterwagon twice a week to keep the dust controlled across the local dirt roads. As the walnut business grew, Giordano’s son, Anthony, worked with neighbors to bring the first electricity to the area to power the dehydrators for their crops and eventually light their homes. The fertile land grew top notch produce that was shipped far and wide.

In the 1970s, the family sold the 40-acre site to a developer. The orchard went from developer to developer until the early 1990s, when it was little more than a hay field and an old dump. But slowly, a grassroots movement started to gain some momentum. In 1993, there was a recession and layoffs, and funding was as hard to come by as it is today. It would be up to the volunteers.

Soccer enthusiasts like Dick Mussallem and community leaders like Dennis Kennedy and Hedy Chang began to envision something more for the site. The land owners and the local and regional soccer organizations developed the framework for a deal. Local businesses leaders such as Scott Schilling and Gloria Ballard donated their time and industry to help design the site and provide safe access.

Volunteers like Franco DiCicco helped lead the growing effort, and groups came together to remove the trash and old refrigerators that littered the site. The agricultural community, led by George Chiala, brought tractors and field equipment to level and prepare flat fields.

Again the community pulled together, this time with a goal to build a dream park for kids to play sports. It was during this time that the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance was formed.

Under the stewardship of Mayor John Varella and County Supervisor Mike Honda, an athletic field county-use permit was granted. A long-term lease to the California Youth Soccer Association solidified the deal, and Morgan Hill had 11 new soccer fields. On Aug. 23, 1994, the groundbreaking ceremony featured a soccer game between the supporters, volunteers and enablers. Varella recalls kicking Mike Honda’s (backside) in the match.

The intervening years saw some interesting developments. In 1996, the Oakland Raiders were looking for a new Summer training camp, and our fields were in the final running. Near the end of an involved competition, Raiders owner Al Davis came down one Friday, resplendent in his white Raiders suit and sunglasses. His one question: “Where are the Dallas Cowboys going to stay when we scrimmage them here?” The venerable Golden Oak and The Inn (now Ramada) were offered up to an enthusiastic Davis. A few days later, Morgan Hill was notified that they came in a close second to Napa Valley, where the Raiders still hold summer workouts.

In 2003, the City of Morgan Hill purchased the facility and continued the long-term lease with CYSA. Then in 2007, the Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Center opened, featuring two state-of-the-art, fully lighted, all-weather fields complemented with paved parking and a permanent main building with a fully equipped food court, bathrooms and a conference room. The remaining nine grass soccer fields continued to operate separately, serving regional and local soccer games and tournaments.

Today the entire facility is operated and maintained by the MHYSA, which relies on volunteers and donations from the community. This column looks forward to highlighting the people and organizations that enable so many great events at the center with the hope of showing how our community still pulls together, just like it did back when.