Since the dawn of time, Chamblee sports have been fighting over space to practice. Whether it’s soccer, lacrosse, imaginary frisbee, curling, or track, the truth is, there is no space.
“Man, it really sucks! I just wanted to get my imaginary frisbee on, but we don’t have much practice space, so we’re forced to use the grass patch outside of the stadium. We were most likely going to have a winning season, I imagine. I mean this is our first in-person year playing but still, we have a pretty strong team,” said frisbee master Chase Le’Disque (‘22).
Unfortunately for the teams, their problem was made a lot worse when the county had to turf the practice field, in the middle of their season.
“Yeah you know, I was thinking it’d be swag of me to finally turf that practice field outside of the cafeteria because I kept seeing so many people falling. I’ve also heard a lot of tea about the field unaliving itself after every rain storm,” said site director Green Pasture.
Students were upset to see their field destroyed before their eyes and recounted many of the memories they had there.
“[Soccer] was having a winning streak this year. We’ve won over 35 games and we accredited all of our victories to the practice field. Sure it’s hard, and soggy, and always muddy, and dead, and bumpy […], but it’s ours. The field made me the tough woman I am today.” said freshman forward Gillian Bates (‘25).
Once the athletes found out just how long this process would take, they decided to take action to speed it up.
“[The Lacrosse] team and I started to think ‘what could speed this up?’ And then we came up with an answer, we’d start the process ourselves! So one day, when everyone left school, we went outside and shoveled up all the dirt and dead grass. Once we hit the concrete under the grass we went in with drills and started to crack it up. We had to leave that in chunks once we heard police cars coming our way,” said lacrosse Captain Maddie Sticks add year.
Admin and the site directors are still unsure of who destroyed the field. Despite the lacrosse team’s best efforts, their technique only made the process take longer.
“What those kids did wasn’t lit at all.
Like respectfully, all they did was delay this process since we now have to pick up each chunk of concrete. As soon as I saw the chunks of concrete, I turned to my assistant and said ‘those thangs ain’t thanging,’ as in the concrete was no longer doing its jobs,” said Pasture.
With an estimated eight extra months of repair and six displaced teams, practice space is a lot more limited than future years.
“I’m not going to say names or anything but, I’m so mad at Maddie and her team! We were forced to practice on the lot near the old Home Depot until we could find space,” said Bates.
But then a miracle stuck. All of the spring athletes were brought into the gym to hear an announcement from Pasture.
“We walked into the gym to see a display of VR sets on the table. Mr. Pasture told us that he was giving each team 30 VR sets, so that way we could practice our sports in any room. I was excited, skeptical, but excited. I felt like we didn’t deserve them because there are starving kids somewhere, but like that’s just what happens when you’re good I guess,” said Sticks.
Pasture was pleased to give out these gifts to the students.
“I mean outside of lacrosse, I feel all the kids deserved a chance to do their sport. I just felt bad they were all punished by something outside of their control, it’s not like they tore up our field,” said Pasture.
Some were wondering where the money came from.
“When we removed the concrete we noticed it was giving oil. So, big brain me was like ‘let’s sell the oil to pay for VR headsets’ but big brother said no. So I hopped onto the teens favorite clock app and started dancing to that one Lil Nas X song. I went viral and all the hip teens donated to my cause,” said Pasture.
The Spring sports were a bit skeptical, but were surprised to see how it worked out.
“Those VR sets were magical, we actually made it all the way to the olympics and now everyone is asking us for tips. I learned how to control the ball a lot better and how to take on super rough opponents. I’m honestly really grateful for Mr. Pasture,” said Bates.
Chamblee is contemplating keeping these VR headsets available in case they decide to turn the practice fields into more parking spots.
“At the end of the day, I think I did a great thing. I was totally hip and down with the youth of today and can’t wait to come back for the next project. I’m going to let them keep the VR headsets just in case,” said Pasture.