Seven years ago, just before the start of the 2009 school year, the Robbinsville Board of Education and administrators were performing their annual facilities walkthrough. They made their way inside and outside each of the three district schools, looking for anything that might be in need of repair or improvement.
That year, though, they had a new attendee—Steve Mayer, who had just been hired as superintendent. When they reached Robbinsville High School, the first thing he noticed was that the school lacked something that seems to be commonplace at other high schools in the area: a concession stand and bathrooms at the football field.
Since then, the idea of building a full-fledged field house—including the concession stand and those bathrooms—has floated around the district and at school board meetings. After Mayer died tragically on April 19, though, those talks picked up more steam. Many township officials and residents feel that the Steven J. Mayer Field House would be an appropriate way to honor Mayer’s life. It was something he was passionate about as superintendent, a goal he set to be completed somewhere down the line.
Refurbishing the athletic facilities was always a dream of Mayer’s, said school board president Matthew O’Grady, and it started earlier this year when the current athletic complex was renamed in honor of Mayer. In addition, his initials, “SJM,” were printed on the turf field.
The field house, which O’Grady described as a “glaring need,” will sit either to the left or to the right of the turf field when completed. O’Grady hasn’t looked at the wetlands survey of the grounds surrounding the school, but said its findings will play a part in where the field house goes.
He added that students and parents have acknowledged that the weight room and locker rooms are undersized, and fans at games constantly ask about bathrooms.
Fundraisers and donations big and small will pay for the complex, and the Robbinsville Education Foundation has created a subfund specifically for the project.
“We always wrestle with priorties, with limited funds and trying to lay out wants and needs when we’re looking at not being able to hire teachers and fund other things that are in the classroom,” O’Grady said. “It was always on the list, but it wasn’t something we could justify. Long ago, we came to the conclusion that it had to be a grassroots effort.”
“Steve would love that the community is rallying and working together and doing good things for kids,” O’Grady said. “He would probably also be angry that we’ve made such a big to-do.
Steve was really, really humble. He loved to be in the public eye, but for working with kids, not for people honoring him. That’s been a fine line for us. But we feel part of the healing process for the community is to go through this. When we dedicated the stadium to him, part of what I wrote that day was that it was a chance for everyone to be a part of his legacy. That part, he would embrace.”
The potential functionality of the field house, O’Grady said, is what the always logical and thoughtful Mayer would have appreciated most about the project. The only definites so far are the concession stand—the sales from which O’Grady would like to see go towards extracurricular programs at the high school—bathrooms and storage, but the rest is up in the air.
“The field house was always on the list, but Long ago, we came to the conclusion that it had to be a grassroots effort.”
O’Grady has been out to similar facilities to get a handle on what would and wouldn’t be good for Robbinsville. He would like to see something that is useful to all sports and activities, like marching band and dance team. It would be nice to have both boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, as well has a separate space for the football team because “football players can get pretty dirty,” O’Grady said. Electric and water lines already run out to the fields.
Whatever it ends up being, O’Grady said, it has to look like it belongs there—and fit.
“We’re trying to get all of the groups involved to schedule sitdowns,” he said. “We’re not rushing. We know we need to raise money. The fundraising has already started. It’s not going to happen overnight. We are firmly grounded in reality. We’ll grind it out. That’s who Robbinsville is.”
He also would like the space to be useful to other community groups and organizations that may not be affiliated with the school. The turf already gets a lot of use through outside groups who pay to reserve the space when students aren’t using it.
One district that’s found community buy-in for a field house is the Gates Chili school district in Rochester, New York. The district’s Spartan Field House is a 100,000-sq.-ft. facility that includes a 7,700-sq.-ft. fitness center, 27,800-sq.-ft. gymnasium and an eight-lane swimming pool with an oversized shallow end for community use, said Gates Chili director of physical education, health and athletics Patrick Irving.
The gym features four practice basketball courts, 26 basketball hoops that can be raised and lowered, an NBA/NCAA regulation court, six volleyball courts and an elevated indoor track. The fitness center is open to all Gates Chili residents 18 and over and is open evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It houses treadmills, ellipticals and free weight and powerlifting stations. During the day, physical education classes are held there.
The complex was built about a decade ago and has become a fixture in the community, Irving said. At the start of the project, the center’s capital project committees got together to create a big-picture plan for the space. Now, it’s turned into something that can accommodate up to 2,000 people and gets used year-round by local sports teams, youth groups, cheer squads and more. The district often hosts state and sectional competitions because of the size of the facility. The space gets a lot of use during the winter heading into the spring season, when teams can practice inside when it’s too cold to get outside.
“It’s definitely a shining star in the community,” Irving said. “People come here for a lot of events and want to utilize it as much as possible.”
They even use the facility during New York’s Regents state testing, setting up desks and chairs to accommodate students. The Spartan Field House recently hosted a community wellness fair, and the facility is the end location for some schools’ evacuation drills.
Spacewise, the Gates Chili facility is probably too ambitious for Robbinsville, but what it brings to the community is exactly what O’Grady, the school board and township administrators are looking for. They want something that will benefit Robbinsville as a whole, big or small.
A set cost has not yet been established because the specifics of what the complex will include haven’t been decided.
“We don’t know until we meet with the stakeholders,” O’Grady said. “We want to build this once, build it right and make sure that we get as much in there that we can. If that means another year of fundraising, or takes longer to get to where we want to be, that’s okay. Steve was a ‘Let’s do it right’ kind of guy. If we’re going to do this in his honor, we’re going to honor the way he would have handled it.”
O’Grady acknowledged that the field house won’t encompass every community member’s vision, but he’s ready to hear what residents would like to see it include. From there, they can put everything down on paper and determine what is and isn’t realistic. The cost will be set once a more specific plan is established, though O’Grady said that can change as the project moves forward.
“You can never raise enough money,” he said. “There’s always something that’s unforeseen. I also know from doing fundraising work that sometimes the bigger the ask, the more response you get. Robbinsville is a small community. It seems like we’ve got a core group of people giving to different things, but we want to broaden beyond that. It’s about the intent to contribute and be a part of something, more than how much you’re willing to put forth. I think it’s a great opportunity for the community to sing from the same sheet of music.”
The first fundraiser for the project, a fashion show scheduled for Oct. 15, was canceled, and a new event is in the works.
“The board, administration, township—everybody’s on the same page,” O’Grady said. “When those three groups are together, good things happen.”
The dedication of the Robbinsville High School field in honor of former superintendent Steve Mayer in September was the first step in a school district plan to create an athletic complex with more facilities and amenities. (File photo by Suzette J. Lucas.),
