The commission on Monday discussed bringing football practice back to the field, inviting Hoosac Valley Regional School Committee Chair Michael Mucci to discuss it. Mucci said practicing at Renfrew last year worked well, but he is concerned about wearing the field down. 

 

"Based on conversations with Steve [Skrocki], we put a lot of effort into, 'let's stay in this corner this week, let's go in that corner this week. Let's not always start on the 50-yard line,'" he said. "We did a lot of those things last year to keep Renfrew good. And I think if we could also maybe circle in every other or every third week at Russell it just might help," he said. 

 

Parks Foreman Steve Skrocki said the field was not ready for football practice last he checked. The committee and Skrocki will determine the field condition and discuss the issue further in July. 

 

"It's not unusable; it's just not ready for football practice," Skrocki said.

 

Mucci also discussed dedicating two Sundays in the fall to playing youth football at the high school. He said this has been done in previous years and would push students to consider Hoosac Valley High School. 

 

"We would coordinate that with the athletic director and make sure there's no impact to high school sports," he said. "It's been a great way to get them to transition from the youth to the high school." He said 

 

Commission Chair James Fassell said it is important for students to play games at the high school and become accustomed to the facilities. The discussion will be revisited next meeting when schedules are closer to finalization. 

 

"One of the ideas is to promote Hoosac Valley football, and the best way to do that is to get the kids used to being up to that high school and realizing that there's a good place to play," he said. "So when they're making the decision whether they should go to McCann or Hoosac, part of that decision will be playing football at Hoosac Valley High School."  

 

Mike Benson of the Adams-Cheshire Little League said the league is still working on getting funds for the new Valley Street shed. A warrant for the annual town meeting includes appropriating $3,000 for the shed and the league will need to pay the remaining $3,000. 

 

Fassell made several recommendations for potential donators and said the board will look to do what it can to help. 

 

"Every sport is under a lot of pressure and needs to be supported in any way it can be," Fassell said. 

 

Students from McCann Technical School's woodworking department will be building the shed. 

 

Board of Selectmen Member Joe Nowak was present and thanked the new members of the board for volunteering their time. 

 

"When I leave each of these meetings that I attend, it's becoming more obvious that we're very short on fields in this community," he said. 

 

The commission approved a facility use request for Berkshire Americans Baseball from June 1 to Aug. 10 for Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings for games and practice.