Ferris High’s eyesore soccer field must be replaced, students say in petition

Long-time Hudson County soccer coaches know that the usual gear isn’t always enough to keep players safe when playing at Ferris High School’s field: In addition to cleats and shin guards, players would be well-advised to pack a spacesuit.

“We have a little inside joke amongst the coaches of the county: We call that field the moon,” explained Rene Portillo, head soccer coach at Dickinson High School, “and the reason we call that field the moon is because it’s got so many holes and craters in it and so many ditches.”

Torn ACLs and rolled ankles are often the result of the lunar playing surface, Portillo said.

But recently, calls have been getting louder to replace it with a new turf field, and students at the school are the ones leading the charge.

A petition has been circulating for two weeks calling on the Jersey City school district and its board to install a new artificial turf field and had 700 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.

Lorenzo, a class of 2025 student-athlete at Ferris who declined to give his last name for “privacy reasons,” said he started the petition because “we deserve to have a quality field and we want to make sure our student athletes can succeed.”

Lorenzo described the field as dry and bumpy, “like we’re playing on cement” when it’s dry, and muddy with bad drainage and goose droppings on it when it’s wet. Bare spots outnumber the grass, and what little grass there is has dried out and is dying.

The horrendous field conditions lead to injuries, Lorenzo said.

Roberto Escobar, the boys soccer head coach at Ferris for the past 21 years, said he was surprised to see the petition and didn’t know about it in advance. But he agrees that the field needs an upgrade.

“In the summer it’s not terrible, but once we start the season and it starts raining and (there are) puddles, we have to cancel games because of it,” he said.

Escobar said the field had not changed much in its condition during his time as head coach. He blamed a poor irrigation system for the lack of grass.

Portillo said he hates playing at Ferris’ field. “When I have to play there, I send my kids to get double ankle wraps,” he added.

Across the county, Ferris is something of an outlier for not having a turf field. Dickinson plays on turf field at Lincoln Park and high schools like Kearny, Bayonne, Union City and Harrison also play on turf, Portillo said.

Lorenzo said many Ferris students talk about the need for a turf field and the petition online appears to have support from teachers, alumni and even local sports broadcasters.

Gerry Lyons, president of the Jersey City Board of Education and Norma Fernandez, superintendent of the school district, could not be reached for comment. Lorenzo said he has not received a formal response from the school district yet.

For now, Lorenzo said he’s “patiently waiting on good news.”