AFTER years of playing on a substandard surface at their Cloverly Park North Street campus, the Kingston College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) has initiated a project to renovate the playing field and sport pavilion.

The project, which started over two months ago, is scheduled to be completed in another months and president of the KCOB local chapter Dr Ray Frazer disclosed that the school is responsible for financing the improvements to the field, while the pavilion project is being funded by the Rujan Foundation, a Florida-based company.

“The funding for this project is actually by the school board… they have approved funding for the fence and the field because for many years the field was in a deplorable condition to the point where the Referees Association threatened that if the field remained as it was, they would have to ask for a new venue for our Manning Cup home matches this season,” Fraser said.

He pointed out that it is not only footballers who suffer from the poor quality of the surface, but other sportsmen using the grounds as well.

“During the athletic season when the boys are training, because of the irregularity and hardness of the field, a number of our athletes go down with injuries as a direct consequence of that, so it wasn’t only impacted on the football,” he noted.

However, Robert Kelly, a former president of the KCOB New York chapter, on his return the island, initiated the whole project and has work as plant and maintenance manager at the school.

“He got expert advice and brought in technical personnel to renovate the field and to do the fencing,” Fraser added while noting that the fencing is there to ensure that the field is properly protected and maintained.

“… Boys will be boys and if the field is open they will utilise it like boys do… so we’re making every effort to maintain it as well,” he stated.

Kingston College has two campuses — on North Street and at their Melbourne Campus. Presently, the Manning Cup team uses the Melbourne field

for training.

But Frazer is hoping the North Street field will

be ready to host Manning Cup home matches

in September.

“We do not want to put too much pressure on the field so as to allow the grass to catch properly… and that’s why we have also laid underground sprinklers so it will be ready for football, but we plan to continue the training at Melbourne Campus and play our games at North Street,” he added.

It is estimated that it will cost in the region of $3.5 to $4 million to fence and fix the field and the school has already contributed significantly towards the project, with the Old Boys Association expected to lend their support.

However, coupled with the field renovation project will be the sports pavilion enterprise, which is a separate entity. The pavilion, which was built by the father of legendary West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding was also in a state of disrepair.

“The Old Boys pulled together and made a proposal and through Audley Hewitt of the Miami Chapter, contact was made with the Rujan Foundation led by a KC old boy and they made contributions from basketball players…

“We were able to negotiate a grant of nearly $6 million and that is being used to renovate the sports pavilion, which is over 90 per cent complete,”

he explained.

Frazer said the project already serves as a motivation to the boys at the school and they hope they can keep upgrading the facility to rival that of neighbouring Winchester Park (St George’s field) in the years to come.

“Already it has boosted the morale of the boys… as over the years despite the poor conditions we always do well. But this will also be a stimulus to the old boys that they must continue contributing to the college,” he said.