Coaches, parents asking for night lights at Watsonville park

Residents in Watsonville want to see more lights in their parks, especially so their kids can practice sports after sunset.

At Ramsay Park on Main Street, where there are several soccer fields, it gets completely dark after sunset.

On Tuesday, soccer players were trying to catch every last bit of light before it was gone. Coach Miguel Sandoval said it is affecting their game.

“Right now, we’re having a hard time to get them up to the level we’re playing right now because the lights are not helping us,” said Sandoval, who coaches the Watsonville Breakers U-11.

More specifically, it is the lack of lights at Ramsay Park that is causing problems. Sandoval said there are about five or six teams that practice on the fields each day. When it is dark, they have to use indoor courts.

“It’s a little bit tough because they don’t have enough spots for all of us,” said Sandoval.

“With the daylight savings change, right now it’s 6:30, but with the time change it’ll be 5:30,” said Cyndi Edinger, a Watsonville parent whose son plays soccer at Ramsay Park. “So it’ll be dark by the time he gets out of soccer practice.”

The city said it understands what the community wants and has already been working on studies and getting input.

“The holdup in kind of making that project come to life has really been funding,” said Nick Calubaquib, the parks director for the City of Watsonville.

Calubaquib said putting light up will cost at least $2 million, so the city will soon start looking into state grants to help make it happen. But they said not all parks are meant to be used at night.

“It’s really because they’re situated within neighborhoods where the priority for neighborhood is to have people at the parks during light hours and to have parks closed during hours when the sun sets so there’s not noise and that sort of thing,” said Calubaquib.

Ramsay Park is not in that category though, so coaches and their teams hope to be playing at night sooner rather than later.

“Because we can give them a chance to spend more time in practice and also keep more kids busy, it’s a benefit for them, for their lives,” said Leonel Morales, another Watsonville soccer coach.

The city said it needs to have plans and designs in place in order to qualify for these state grants.