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Ashland tries to get a field just for soccer By WENDY SIPOREN ASHLAND -- Scott Kurtz wants to put Ashland High School soccer on the same par as the Friday night football game. That means having an appropriate place for the community to watch its stars -- the boys and girls who play on the high school varsity teams. Kurtz and the other members of the Ashland Soccer Club are dreaming of bleachers to seat up to 1,500 people, a scoreboard, restrooms, concession stands and possibly a media box at the varsity soccer field at Ashland Middle School. The field was recently upgraded as part of the middle school's expansion. "We're really looking to make this a spectator's venue," says Kurtz, president of the Ashland Soccer Club. "We think that the soccer-playing kids in this community deserve to be watched." While the Ashland School Board has made it clear that there's no money in the budget for large capital improvements such as this, the board has given the club the go-ahead to proceed with a design for the stadium. The club is hoping to get a local architect to design the stadium at a low cost in the next two to three months and bring the plan back to the school board. In order to raise the $200,000-$400,000 estimated for the stadium project, the soccer club plans to apply for grants from the Oregon Youth Soccer Association and the United States Soccer Federation, which put on the World Cup games in recent years. The club's intent is to restrict use of the field mostly to games, Kurtz says, rather than allowing it to be used for practice. He says the only other location in Southern Oregon that comes close is the varsity field at North Medford High School. But it has seating for no more than 400 spectators. Interest in both watching and playing soccer is increasing, says Kurtz, in part because of the attention the sport received last year when the U.S. women's team won the World Cup. "I think the timing is right for people to come and watch what I think is really a remarkably talented group of athletes," he says. "The Ashland soccer teams should be very competitive for years to come. There's a good base of players here." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, OR U.S.A.