“Midnight Madness” will inaugurate new Ventura College Football field

Ventura College Football is coming home at long last! After more than 50 years of playing on other local football fields, season 2006 will be practiced at home. Conference and league rules allow practices to start for the community college team officially on August 10, so at 12:01 a.m. - immediately after midnight when the 9th becomes the 10th, the Ventura College field will be lit, the team will hit the field in helmets and shorts, and the first official home field practice will begin in a “Midnight Madness” christening of the new field. The public is invited to watch the team practice - doing individual, combination and team drills. The first at-home scrimmages will be an inter-squad scrimmage on August 19 at 11:00 a.m., and a scrimmage against West Los Angeles College on August 26 at 1:00 p.m.Coach Gary Anglin noted that construction of the field began on September 1, 2005, and completion of the Sportsplex is anticipated for winter 2007. Currently the football-soccer field and the nine-lane, polyurethane track are completed and the lighting and goalposts are up. The plaza courtyard entryway is under construction and will be completed in January 2007. Elements of the project still to be completed are the bleacher and press box system, the audio system, and the jumping and throwing event areas for track and field. Because the bleachers will not be completed until after the 2006 season is over, games will be played at Larrabee Stadium at Ventura High School.The Ventura College Pirate Football team currently has 95 players on the roster, representing virtually every local high school, including Buena, Ventura, Oxnard, Channel Islands, Pt. Hueneme, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Rio Mesa, Newbury Park, Grace Brethren, Nordhoff, Santa Paula, Fillmore and St. Bonaventure. “We are a local team, made up of local players - we only have a sprinkling of out of state students playing for the Pirates. This is going to be a terrific year for Ventura College and we are very excited about our schedule.”