Lockbourne coach warns season switch will squeeze fields, create safety and equity concerns

Christina Koss, a Lockbourne Middle School coach and district employee, told the Clover Park School District board of directors on May 12 that a recent change to middle‑school sports seasons will create overlapping schedules that the school’s facilities cannot safely support.

Koss said she began contacting district leadership last August after hearing about a potential season switch and that she had “sent half a dozen follow‑up emails since then” without receiving responses. “We currently have 1 field. 1 for JV baseball, varsity baseball, fast varsity fast pitch, and JV fast pitch all in 1 current field,” Koss said. “We have the potential for a second field. We used to have a second field, but it would take major district improvement to come in and make it workable.”

Koss told the board the Seamount League voted in February to move seasons even though, she said, that league “technically doesn't exist because they haven't had any bylaws since 02/2015.” She described multiple operational and safety challenges if seasons shift as proposed: simultaneous track, fast‑pitch and baseball games on one field; no outfield fences that can send deep fly balls onto a track or into spectator areas; boys’ soccer moved into a November–January timeframe that would require practices after sunset at fields without lights; and girls basketball sharing a single gym with coed wrestling, which she said leaves girls’ JV and varsity teams to practice with only “3 hoops and half a regular sized gym.”

Koss urged the board to consider the impacts on Lockbourne athletes and staff. A board member told Koss the board would collect her written comments and that staff would distribute them to directors; the board did not take formal action on the matter during the meeting.

Why it matters: Koss framed the issue as both a safety and equity concern — students traveling to other district sites regularly see facilities “so much nicer than ours,” she said — and asked the district to address field, lighting and scheduling limitations before the schedule change takes effect. The board’s agenda noted several first readings that will be discussed at a May 27 workshop; no vote or directive on the season change was recorded at the May 12 meeting.

The board heard no formal response during public comment beyond a promise to distribute written materials and follow up. The district’s superintendent and board members did not announce any timeline for a response at the meeting.