The Way I See It
I F you have small children, you'd be well advised not to take them to the University of Hawaii's Cooke Field track. They might fall in a hole and never be seen again. Cooke Field track
at UH badly in
need of repairOK, I'm exaggerating. But if you've looked lately at the oval-shaped disaster that sits in the middle of the lower campus, you'd think it had been raked by a Stealth fighter.
What an incredible eyesore.
And isn't it hard enough for Rainbows coaches to recruit outstanding mainland prospects?
Imagine what the recruits think when they see a Division I university's rubberized track in shreds.
I heard someone on campus joke that coaches do make an effort to detour recruits around Cooke Field.
Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, UH's senior woman administrator, said the track was supposed to last five years when it was laid in 1993. Time's well up.
On the mauka side of the track, nearer the softball stadium and the parking facility, there are huge gouges in the surface.
In some areas, the track is turned up in heaves that are potentially dangerous to runners.
Relentless pounding of feet and merciless exposure to Hawaii's ultra-violet rays break down the glue holding together the surface's rubber granules.
"We're not proud of it," said associate athletic director Jim Donovan.
THERE has not been a university track program here since the early 1980s. Talk of a women's program starting in 2000-2001 seems empty right now, given budget constraints.
So, what possible excuse could university officials use to renovate the track?
There's definitely a need.
Even though it's in woeful condition, the track is in use by the taxpaying public from sunrise to sunset. University athletes use it , high school track teams practice on it, average working people try to shed extra pounds on it, children play on it.
People gravitate to it for several reasons.
It is a public facility with plenty of parking spaces and 24-hour security. It's a place for fans to both exercise and mingle with the athletes they pay to watch.
"We try to use innovative ways to get funding," said Donovan, who holds little hope for a legislative measure this session to appropriate $6 million to repair the track and seed the infield to create a soccer pitch for the homeless Wahine booters.
"We even asked the federal government to help us because it's (the track and field) used by the ROTC for parade marches and PT (physical training)."
But the feds didn't bite.
RIGHT now, there is not even a maintenance budget for the field facility. The lack of any supervisory personnel leaves the surface open to a variety of abuses.
While walking on it yesterday (you expected me to run?), I saw a university maintenance van driving over it. I'm sure it wasn't the first time a vehicle has crossed the track.
It's a bloody shame that there are more proposals to revive the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial, which is not in use by anybody except water rats, than there are to make the UH track presentable and completely safe.
It would cost about $1 million to fix the track alone.
Not too big an investment for a sponsor who would get endless exposure from the traffic the oval draws.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.