New Track and Field for Future Olympians

Renovated sports structure at York College gets $8.1M facelift in Jam.

^{By Naeisha Rose / Editor - Aug 2, 2024 - Queens Chronicle - reprinted with permission.}

It was a marathon-like journey, but after approximately 17 years the ribbon was cut for the newly renovated $8.1 million sports structure at York College in Jamaica last Thursday.

The NCAA-level 400-meter track and soccer field, located on 160th Street between Liberty Avenue and Tuskegee Airmen Way, will have many more features soon.

As of now, the track and field includes long jump runway strips and space for pole vaulting equipment, shot put, discus, javelin, hammer and more, thanks to funding provided by the City Council, the Borough President’s Office and York College students, according to the CUNY school.

“Today we proudly celebrate ... the first and only National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA-level facility in Southeast Queens,” said York interim President Claudia Schrader. “This has been a three-president relay project.”

The project first started under former York President Marcia Kiezs and Schrader replaced the most recent President Berenecea Johnson Eanes, who now heads up Cal State Los Angeles in East Hollywood, Calif.

Along with thanking the Southeast Queens community, the New York City Football Club, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, York’s foundation board members, staff and the facilities crew, alumni and students, Schrader also praised state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) Borough President Donovan Richards and Councilwomen Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans) and Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica).

“I want to take this opportunity to extend a Queens-size, York-size thank you that extends infinitely longer than any high jump,” Schrader said to the elected officials. 

For more than a decade, the facility was padlocked because inferior construction led to massive sinkholes leaving students no place to train. The school also experienced several false starts after years of noncommitment to upgrade the space. “Your commitment has been instrumental in bringing this project to fruition,” Schrader said. 

This is just the beginning, said CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor and COO Hector Batista.

“By 2025 we are going to be having a scoreboard and other things here,” Batista said.

It was not lost on Adams that the ribbon cutting was taking place as members of Team USA were winning or gearing up to compete at the Paris Olympics.

“Stars like Dalilah Muhammad out of Rochdale Village started right here in Southeast Queens and went on to win medals and to break world records,” Adams said. “Just this week we saw 21-year-old Lauren Scruggs from Ozone Park earn a silver medal in fencing, becoming the first Black woman athlete to accomplish this feat for Team USA. This is homegrown talent. Future star athletes will get their start on this very track and field and they too will emerge on the world stage proudly representing us in Queens ... The best is still yet to come.”

Richards, a former councilman, said that when he used to take the Long Island Rail Road to get to the city, he would see how people looked down on the area.

“I would look at how people coming through our community would look at our community,” Richards said. “We deserve everything that every other community gets. We are hard working taxpayers right here. As a matter of fact, this community pays higher taxes than any other part of New York City last time I checked.”

Richards said the days of disinvestment in Southeast Queens are over.

“Think about how these individuals still ran their race and succeeded coming from communities like ours that were disinvested in,” he said, referring to Scruggs and Muhammad. “Imagine if they had state-of-the-art [facilities].”

After the ribbon cutting, student-athletes in track and soccer started playing on the track and field while recruits of the CUNY Public Safety Academy were exercising.

Along with learning procedural law, regulations and diffusion tactics, the PSA students also engage in physical training to stay in shape, said York College Chief of Public Safety James Assmann.

“We also have officer wellness, something that has been overlooked for many years in law enforcement,” Assmann said. “We are constantly helping other people, but sometimes we bring those burdens home. This course teaches you that there are positive resources out there, people to talk to and exercise programs to get involved in.”

Schrader said that others will be utilizing the space as well.

“Someone once said, either Kevin Costner or Noah, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” she said. “Who is coming, you asked? York students of the Department of Health and Human Performance, physical education majors from the Teachers Ed. Department, student-athletes, high school students, our college community and members of the surrounding community who want to walk better into health, train and even play a quick game of soccer.”

Schrader said it will also be fertile ground for future NYCFC soccer stars and track stars like Sha’Carri Richardson.

“We are not leaving it all on the field,” she said. “We will take our appreciation and gratitude for your support and investment to ensure this track and field ... is a place where futures take flight.”

^{originally appeared: https://www.qchron.com/editions/eastern/new-track-and-field-for-future-olympians/article_1a83453c-50ea-11ef-b5da-8bf064912930.html}