APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A perfect start to the soccer season was disrupted Thursday night.
“When you see things like this… it’s just pretty sad,” Shant Mesdjian, the director of coaches at NewUnited said.
Mesdjian tells FOX 11 a car drove onto one of the fields from the parking lot, did donuts around the field and tore up the grass.
“I don’t know if we’ll get rid of it totally. We’ll probably end up putting some topsoil on there, some seed and then hopefully having people stay off of this part of the field at least.”
NewUnited doesn’t know who vandalized the field.
“It makes us all pretty sad to see it just ruined like that because of one person not thinking properly,” Mesdjian said.
This isn’t the first time that vandalism has happened at the Scheels USA Youth fields. This is the third year in a row that a car has vandalized one of their fields.
Now, NewUnited will have to temporarily close this field to fix it.
Instead of closing the entire outdoor field complex off with a gate, Mesdjian says they’re hoping to invest.
“We’ll be looking into putting cameras that’ll do a 360, as well as at the entrance so we can see who’s coming and going at what times of the night.”
They’re hoping cameras will deter people from vandalizing again.
“Now we have to do the work on these fields again and prepare them,” Mesdjian said.
Mesdjian wants the vandal to know the time and effort that goes into maintaining fields.
“I’d probably bring them out here and show them a couple of days work that we put in out here, just to show that person, whether it’s a he or a she, look– you just ruined it.”
When it comes down to it– the kids are the most important part of this.
“Think of the kids that are out there. That’s really what’s important. Us, we can work. How about the little ones that want to come out and play?”
NewUnited hopes to have security cameras within a years time.
If you know anything about the vandalism, police want to hear from you.
For now, the games will shift to other fields on the complex.
