Big Cat Field not quite the cat's meow

I have written before that the abandonment of Coombe Field was sad for this community. That site is still very visible in east Morris and it's not very attractive, even if the City of Morris manages to keep the grass cut.
It's hard to pass by that site and not envision the heyday when it not only was a quite fine football field, it was a festive gathering place for the community - a "town square," as a current school board member put it to me once.
Now we have Big Cat Field. Big Cat undoubtedly works well for the U of M-Morris. That's something to celebrate. I checked it out when the Cougars played their Homecoming game last year, on a day when patches of snow were on the ground, and found the bleachers to be full. A facility like this helps the UMM Cougar program with its recruiting.
Also, even though the stadium was built between UMM and the public school, it has the definite feel of being part of the UMM campus. A visitor who didn't know better would assume that it was simply part of the campus. It's right next to the P.E. Center, and the parking lot there is an official UMM lot.
You might be asking "so?"
It was my understanding that the stadium was built as a cooperative venture between UMM and the public school. Community leaders were known to trumpet this when it was proposed and promoted. One told me that the project was somewhat cutting edge in that regard, and that the state was most approving.
I'm not sure I'm so enthralled by the approval of "the state." There is no substitute for the judgment of people at the local level. When you drift away from that you have to bow to priorities that may not be in our interests.
The "cooperative" nature of Big Cat was a concept that seemed appealing at a bureaucratic level. In reality we have a field that is a fine showcase for UMM and serves its interests - wonderful - but leaves the public school feeling as though it's riding piggy back.
And even though Big Cat seems like a boon for UMM, was there really anything wrong with the old UMM field? I remember attending games at the old UMM field as far back as about 1970. I never saw any shortcomings, and it's not as if UMM football grew in its competitiveness (or talent) through the years.
Is there anyone among us who doesn't feel wistful and nostalgic about the days when UMM played schools like Winona State, Moorhead State, Bemidji State and Northern State? Those foes were known quantities - household words. Now so many of the opponents seem obscure and almost mysterious, like Principia College.
But I don't think anyone argues that Big Cat Field isn't in the best interests of the local college.
The primary issue to address here is whether the other partner in the field, our local high school, is being served well enough. We're into July and the pre-season workouts aren't far off. Then we'll see if somehow more fannies can get parked in the Big Cat bleacher seats for MAHS Tiger football.
Cougar football is played during the bright daytime hours. The temperature tends to be warmer of course.
But for the prep action? Big Cat Field with its location on the edge of town seems bleak and desolate at night. It overlooks total barrenness to the east.
There is an assumption that fans will come and park their butts on hard bleacher seats and seriously watch football for four quarters. Here we have a disconnect between reality and what might appeal to bureaucratic planners. Anyone who attended Coombe Field through the years knows that a huge percentage of fans paid only partial interest to the football. It was, as my school board acquaintance pointed out, a "town square."
I have previously written that this town square is now "gone with the wind." And how very regrettable. No such warm feelings could ever be felt about Big Cat. It sits there like a big airy mausoleum most of the year. At the end of August we'll see if our public school leaders can think of ways of getting more people to show up for football.
Kitschy promotions? Who knows.
The school has discontinued cheerleading. To those who might suggest that cheerleading is anachronistic, I would respond that we could have a "cheer team" with both male and female members - a quite fine contemporary model.
We also have a band program that seems to me indifferent to supporting Tiger football. It should be a given that a band of some sort play for every home football game, especially since we're supposed to feel so proud of this new stadium. There was no band for the Tigers' playoff game against Minnewaska Area last fall. The poor attendance for that game should have been a wakeup call for the community.
Resurrect Coombe Field? Only in our dreams. That would make too much sense. We have a new field designed to please "planners" of the ivory tower type and now we have to try to make it work. I think it will be uphill.
Here is an absolutely huge issue: Can fans feel totally comfortable parking close to Big Cat? In other words, can fans use the "UMM" parking lot without inhibitions? My goodness, you would think "yes" because high school games are played on Friday night when the campus is pretty much cleared out anyway.
But no, it came to my attention from a friend last fall that there were actual P.A. announcements at the public school encouraging fans to use the public school parking lot for football games. This is disastrous. This friend was actually at the school and heard one such announcement, so it's irrefutable.
I passed this information on to a school board member (a different one from the one I cited earlier), and he/she got confirmation of this. He/she (anonymity granted) got an explanation from the school that these announcements were just intended to encourage use of the public school lot by fans who wouldn't be inconvenienced by this.
In other words, "we'd appreciate if you could use it." I don't want to misquote or misinterpret.
But I still disagree 100 percent. It's hard enough in this town to get townspeople to feel comfortable going out to the campus. There is a social/cultural division, for one thing, plus the parking permit required in daytime that seems to make the campus off-limits.
In light of this, the absolute last thing we should be doing is encouraging people to park at the public school for prep games at Big Cat.
There is an attendance problem at Big Cat, apparently not for the Cougars (based on my Homecoming glimpse) but for the Tigers. In theory the field was built as a 50/50 proposition between the two institutions. But it doesn't seem to be coming across that way.
As an experiment last fall I actually visited the public school parking lot and walked to Big Cat Field and back. There are issues like a long fence that makes this more arduous than the sheer distance might suggest. But even the sheer distance is an issue, especially for many people or kids who might be physically limited in some way.
Were those P.A. announcements at the high school the result of requests from UMM? I don't know the answer to this.
Put the shoe on the other foot: I can't imagine a situation where people affiliated with UMM would be discouraged, even via a hint, from using any UMM parking lot. So why would people with an interest in high school football be getting this seeming dirty end of the stick?
Big Cat was supposed to be a totally cooperative venture. One lesson from this might be that there's no such thing as a totally cooperative venture.
I don't doubt that players like Big Cat Field. But I don't think they had an issue with Coombe Field. Home football games at Coombe Field were one of the most heartwarming chapters in the history of this community.
During good economic times it's easy to think in terms of just tearing everything down and building new.
The economic realities are different now. The City of Morris is coming off like "Oliver" (of the musical of the same name) asking for "more gruel," such is the apparent austerity it's being forced to deal with.
Come to think of it, I attended the all-school musical "Oliver" at the old elementary auditorium in about 1970. The place was packed and it was wonderful.
That auditorium was perfect for music and theater. Oh, but we had to turn thumbs down on this ultimately, so now the grand art deco facility sits there decaying and haunted, like Coombe Field.
I think it's overwhelmingly sad.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com