KINGSTON — There is perhaps no greater challenge to the development of the proposed public high school in Kingston than the one North Kitsap School District faces providing athletic facilities off West Kingston Road.

The ball fields issue most recently surfaced when a divided NKSD Board of Directors passed the high school’s schematic design by a vote of 3-2 Jan. 22. When asked why board newcomer Ed Strickland voted against the Bassetti Architects’ schematic, he replied, “We are not building a full comprehensive high school. The community asked for a school with adequate athletic facilities.”

This sentiment had been echoed long before Strickland was ever a board member.

“The initial plans of the district … was to eliminate all outdoor sports for grades 7-9 and for the high schools to co-opt the junior high fields,” Indianola resident and concerned citizen Terry Benish said. “That plan continues to survive or re-emerge.”

Benish, who filed a petition to the EPA to study the site for Nike environmental concerns, said he became known as “the ball fields guy” when initial development began for the site a year ago.

His concerns stem from the district’s proposal to have a 9-12 grade-level high school, with a potential of three teams in each sport. The Kingston high school plan is to have one baseball, one fastpitch and two soccer fields in the outfields of the baseball and fastpitch fields and one large field, equipped with a track.

Benish said he believes the fields cannot accommodate teams as needed and the high school will have to look at outside facilities, such as those at neighboring Kingston Junior High.

But even with added junior high facilities, sports at the new high school would suffer tremendously, Benish said.

“The size of the school at 800 students puts them as a small 3A school,” he commented. “They will get their brains beat out for years in virtually every sport.”

North Kitsap High School Athletic Director Al Gleich has been studying the potential high school site for athletics and how the new school will accommodate all sports off West Kingston Road.

“There’s a possibility that three teams will play in each sport,” Gleich said. “We’ll have to have the ability to play three teams on site or we’ll have to send a team away to another (site) — but that adds to transportation (costs).”

The district has 26 buildable acres on the site but a central wetland has created a challenge in providing large enough spaces to establish sites for sport, Gleich said.

Another challenge will be balancing the possibility of three teams practicing in each sport, with five sports in the fall and six in the spring at the new school.

“It is possible to do all this,” Gleich said. “It’s just the logistics that makes it all the more difficult and ups transportation costs.”

The district will also not build a stadium at the West Kingston site and teams at the school will use North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo for some varsity sporting events, including football.

What might be the biggest hurdle of all is the sustainability, not of a field in Kingston, but at North Kitsap Stadium in Poulsbo.

“It is going to be very difficult to play two varsity football teams on one field,” Gleich said. “If its a rainy season they’ll never make it through the season.”

The possibility of artificial turf, at both the West Kingston site for practice and at the existing high school, has been mentioned. Bassetti Architects reported at last year’s Nov. 24 school board study session that turf would cost $500,000-$700,000 to install. But the benefits could outweigh the costs, Gleich said.

“In the long run, you can save money with artificial turf and use it multiple games every day,” Gleich said. “It would be much easier to schedule games with turf and the community could use it.”

Turf also reduces field maintenance costs and draining issues into West Kingston’s central wetland would be avoided almost entirely.

But not having a stadium to watch events at the high school is another concern of Benish and others who oppose the site.

School Board President Catherine Ahl said while she agrees that the school will be different from existing North Kitsap High School, those differences are unavoidable.

“Is it going to be a similar high school to the one we have in Poulsbo? Yes,” said Ahl. “Will it be exactly the same? No — we can’t afford to have every single thing at both schools. But it may have things NKHS does not have.”

Nick Jewett, who serves on the school district’s capital facilities committee, likes the opportunities for shared facilities at surrounding sites, such as Wolfle and Gordon Elementary Schools, Kingston High School and the planned Heritage Park in Kingston near West Kingston Road.

Jewett also said the site itself will serve athletics well, citing state statistics.

“What we have here is 26 buildable acres — the state average is 20,” Jewett said. “This is not an unusually small site for a high school. And the number of fields is above average for the state.”

North Kitsap High School has ——— acres.

The new school has other areas to focus on, Jewett added.

“You go to school for education,” Jewett said. “Sports are important but some might argue they are not as important as band, or other programs.”

District Superintendent Eugene Medina said he understands the concerns of athletic fields at the site but doesn’t believe the school itself can meet the demands of the surrounding north end community.

“We’re going to do the best we can to provide athletic fields and sports,” Medina said. “I understand the frustration people have who want athletic fields, but no matter what we do we won’t touch the needs for NK athletic fields for all kids.”

Like Jewett, Medina said he wants to keep the focus on the more broad aspects of the school’s construction: education.

“This high school is about learning,” Medina said.

For Benish, the proposed school will not suffice unless in his estimation it can be built on an equal playing field as the high school in Poulsbo — literally.

“All we want is a school that has everything in an educational experience that kids already have at the existing North (Kitsap High School),” Benish said.