PORTLAND, Ore. — Every game is an away game for the Leodis V. McDaniel High School baseball and softball teams. Even the so-called home games are played on the road. Two years after a multi-million-dollar renovation at the Portland high school, the teams still can’t use their own field because of a flaw that hasn't been fixed.
"We have to go off campus, and those get called 'home' games," said softball player Nevaeh Jackson, a sophomore at McDaniel.
Instead of playing on the new turf field just steps from their own high school, players and their parents must travel across town for home games.
"It’s incredibly frustrating. It's just sitting there," said McDaniel parent Jennifer Kern.
The student athletes are often pulled from class early, missing school so they can jump on a bus to get to their home game.
"I got into Spanish class for five minutes and I had to leave," Jackson said during pre-game warmups at Ida B. Wells High School in Southwest Portland.
So far this season, McDaniel baseball has travelled to play home games at Walker stadium in Northeast Portland's Lents Park, Milwaukie High School and Grant High School.
Students complain there's a lack of school spirit and sense of community when every game is played on the road.
"I have friends and family who are like, 'Oh, I want to come watch," said Jackson. "Well, my game is at Delta (park). That’s like 30 minutes away."
Troubles after renovation project
In September 2021, Portland Public Schools celebrated the re-opening of McDaniel High School after a roughly $240 million dollar renovation project that included new theaters, common areas and athletic facilities.
But at some point — it's not clear exactly when — the district realized there was a flaw in the baseball and softball fields, making them unusable for games. Last year, the district's assistant athletic director suggested the flaw created a safety issue.
"The filed dimensions are legal and fine… the issue is a lack of protective padded wall or cyclone fence in front of a short cement retaining wall," Portland Interscholastic League assistant athletics director Jeff Erdman wrote in a May 23, 2022 email to KGW.
One year later, the district suggests there are also playability issues involving netting along the outfield fence.
"Unfortunately, the new netting does not allow baseballs to bounce off the netting and remain in play, thus effectively shortening the length of the field and making it unusable for league games," explained an unsigned letter from the district titled "McDaniel Baseball field message April 2023."
To fix the problem, the district plans to install custom steel poles that will hold up a new, tensioned net and some protective padding, the letter explained.
"Wouldn’t they know how to build a field correctly?" asked Kern, whose son plays baseball for McDaniel.
Ongoing delays
In a June 9, 2022, email to KGW, the Portland Public Schools media relations team wrote that "… the field will be ready for use for league games next season." It wasn't.
Many baseball and softball parents, frustrated by the delays, feel the district is giving them the runaround.
"There's been no real good answers as to why the problem hasn't been solved yet," said McDaniel parent James Oellrich.
In March, Oellrich and his son appeared before the Portland school board demanding answers.
"How is this still acceptable?" Oellrich asked the board members. "What are you going to do about it?"
A school board member explained the project has been delayed because the contractor backed out, but reassured parents the field would be ready for games early this season. It wasn't.
Portland Public Schools declined repeated requests for an interview. The district's media relations and communications team did not respond to written questions — including who is paying to fix the problem, how much is it costing and why it has taken so long to fix.
"The project continues to be delayed by supply chain issues and labor shortages," the district explained in a written statement to KGW. "We will continue making every effort to remedy this situation as quickly as possible."
This isn't the first time Portland Public Schools has run into issues surrounding a newly renovated athletic field. In 2021, the district agreed to build a softball field at Grant High School in response to a Title IX lawsuit, which claimed plans for a softball field had been scrapped during renovation of the high school.
Issues surrounding athletic fields are consequential because Portland Public Schools is in the midst a massive modernization project. Construction crews are currently working on the athletic field at Lincoln High School in Southwest Portland.
Since 2012, taxpayers have approved more than two billion dollars in bonds to help fix-up Portland's aging schools. A lack of transparency can erode voter confidence.
"If we vote for a bond that is supposed to give us a school with athletic facilities for our kids and what we end up with is a really nice school, but the athletic facilities don't really work out so well — then, it makes it harder to say yes to the next thing that comes up," said Oellrich. "I want to know that the money going to the district is being managed right."