VANCOUVER, Wash. — The softball team at Clark College is fed up with the vandalism, theft, trash and human waste left behind at their field.
"We've had to kind of force them out, they've stolen our things, broken into our sheds," Freshman catcher Madisen Alvarez said. "We've had to clean up human feces on the back of our dugout. We've found needles, used syringes, things like that. All scattered throughout our playing area."
Alvarez posted these pictures to Facebook of her account of what the players deal with on an almost daily basis.
"They're not supposed to be there and the fact that they do it over and over again is what's frustrating," she said.
Freshman outfielder Lexi Henderson said the field is supposed to be a safe place for everyone and it sometimes doesn't feel that way.
"When I'm out in the parking lot alone, I'm always aware of my surroundings because I don't want anything bad to happen," Lexi said.
On Monday, the team showed up for their first outdoor practice to find their batting cage completely knocked down and destroyed.
"They went through with knives and just kind of completely destroyed our batting cage. It's not something that's easy and it's not cheap to replace,” Alvarez said. “This is where we take a lot of our batting practice. It's now completely destroyed and we're gonna have to figure out a way to fix that."
Clark College is aware of the issue and says they are doing their best to address and fix the issue. In an email to KGW they laid out some of the changes that have come in the works for the athletic fields:
- Replaced lighting in the parking lot adjacent to the athletic fields with new LED lights that are brighter than the previous ones
- Assigned groundskeeping crew to work overtime on weekends in October to clear out bushes and trees in the area, in order to increase visibility--staff will be clearing more vegetation next weekend.
- Ordered motion-detector lights to be installed in multiple locations on the fields.
- The college is adding a fourth security officer to our Security and Safety staff whose primary area of focus will be the Athletic Fields
- Looking at the feasibility of installing taller fencing around the softball field to make it harder to get into it.
The head coach says this is the worst it's been in her three years of coaching at Clark College.
Players say this doesn't make them feel safe.
"It's kind of scary being a female athlete. Coming out here to do something you love and constantly be on the watch, just be ready,” Alvarez said. “We all carry pepper spray, we all have the security number saved in our phone. We have to call security every day before practice to come do a sweep through."