A Natural Sanctuary

The field is raw. It is natural. Yet, if observed more closely, it is more than just a football field; it is an unkempt, turmoil wasteland where knights in armor fight an all-out war to reach an end-zone. This 120x53.3 yard rectangular battlefield is systematically incremented by white paint every five yards. It is riddled with puddles of mud and grass torn out of the Earth by the agile footsteps of players’ cleats. This torn grass emits the immensely strong smell of freshly cut grass, and when in addition of the mud puddles lying across the field, gives the area a keen scent of nature. One could even almost taste this nature; the crisp frozen air would enter an unsuspecting mouth trickling the taste buds. Hovering over the natural field, like vultures over their pray, stadium lights shine bright and highlight the field’s colorful features: contrasting colors between the white paint masking the green grass and bright yellow field goal posts are the actual colors of the very jerseys that players wear on the field. Aside from the large stadium lights, the bright full moon also shines upon the field, giving it an omniscient glow that intensifies the brilliant monument.


Surrounding the field, there is a different yet parallel universe; outside of the 57,600 square-foot box, there is a civilized world. There is a world where people watch the events occurring on the field. Segregated into two crowds, these spectators sit on separate bleachers: the home field stands and the away stands. The home-field seats look like a hospitable house; the stands are a large mantle and at the top there is a room—the roof of the house—where the announcers annunciate the game from. The away stands are less luxurious than the home bleachers, not as an intentional display of disrespect for the opponents, but as a lack of concern for hospitality of the enemy. These away bleachers are flimsy, even for high school seating arrangements; however, both stands have a cold, dead, metallic feel to them. The home-field bleachers posses a certain hospitality that welcomes the Gaucho crowd. Rumbling, banging, roaring, the fans of the Casa Grande Gauchos restlessly and anxiously sit in these bleachers, manipulating an extremely high decibel sound, by stomping their feet and yelling, that echoes all the way to the neighborhood houses surrounding the field.


In between these bleachers, behind the field, lies a mid-sized snack-bar that attracts both an away crowd and home crowd. This snack bar emulates a smell of various different foods that even induces hunger for the athletes competing on the field. The outside of this greenish-yellow building is a splintering wood finish; it is more of a utility to serve people’s needs rather than providing a nice look. Much like the look of the building, the food distributed is mostly for utility; it is not stomach-sickening food, but, from personal experience, their hotdogs and nachos are not five-star caliber. The grill that produces this food is located on the inside of the snack-bar. It is a rusty, metallic appliance that does what is needed to feed the masses, and not much more than that. Overall, the whole snack-bar area is more of a utilitarian appealer than fancy restaurant.


Outside of the stadium, to the right of the home field bleachers, is a parking lot. What separates this lot from any other is that it is a student lot; there are restricting speed-bumps that slow down fans’ animated attitudes and adrenaline rushes before the game. The large grey-colored parking lot was a stop sign in the middle of a drag race; it stopped the blood-thirsty fans from reaching their game. Bum-bump! Bum-bump! Cars are driving through with animosity overcoming their passengers. The peculiar rises of cement invented by Aurthur Holly Compton in the mid 1900s slow down the crowd of Casa Grande Football starting from the parking lot.


All in all, the surroundings of the raw Casa Grande football field compliment its nature and crowd. Every little detail from the structures around the field imposes a new definition of its true nature. From the highlighting beams of light above the field, to the inhibiting speed bumps of the student parking lot affect the scene of the monumental wasteland that some athletes call home. Unlike the snack-bar that feeds its spectators, the Casa Grande football field is not just a utility used to entertain people, it is an area of uncensored nature; it is an area of true beauty.


-Thomas