LUCAS — Lucas athletic director Taylor Iceman is more concerned about the future of Bob Wine Field than he is about what happened there last weekend.
The Cubs’ football field was vandalized early Saturday morning and a 21-year-old Lucas man was taken into custody later in the day in connection with the incident.
Cameron Michael Scott was arrested and charged with vandalism, according to a report provided by the Richland County Sheriff’s Office. Scott is being held in the Richland County jail.
According to authorities, surveillance footage provided by the school allegedly shows Scott and another man in a side-by-side vehicle entering Bob Wine Field at approximately 2:45 a.m. Saturday and making multiple circular ruts, or donuts, on the playing surface. The cost to repair the damage is estimated at $20,000.
The Lucas football team was to host Hillsdale on Saturday night. The game was instead played at Clear Fork High School.
“When it first happened, we put a bunch of sand in the ruts and rolled it to try to get it ready to play that night, but that obviously didn’t happen,” Iceman said. “(The turf company) was here Monday and they are going to plant some ryegrass in there. We don’t play at home again until Week 5 and they think they can get some grass to grow. With the sand, they think we will be all right.”
Not surprisingly, the Lucas community rallied around its successful football program in wake of the incident. Iceman said he had more help than he needed by the time the news began to leak out.
“I had people calling right away and offering to get sand and trucks to haul it,” Iceman said. “Within an hour of us finding out, we had it filled with sand and rolled out and we were able to make a decision if we were going to be able to play or not.
“That was all Lucas people stepping up and doing what had to be done.”
Once it was determined the field was unplayable, the rest of north central Ohio rode to the rescue. Clear Fork and Hillsdale officials offered to do anything they could to play Saturday’s game.
“It’s a lot of work to move a game at the last minute like that, don’t get me wrong, but I had so much help,” Iceman said. “You would have thought it was a regularly-scheduled game to be played at Clear Fork.
“We had ticket-takers show up. We had our chain crew down there. Our (public address) announcer was there and they even hooked up our sound system. That’s a big deal for our fans.
“Everyone at Hillsdale was very cooperative as well. They could have said that we had to go to their place, but they were willing to do whatever it took to get the game played.”
Football coach Scott Spitler was impressed with the resilience his Cubs showed throughout a trying week. Players and coaches already were coping with the deaths of two people associated with the program earlier in the week.
Shortly after finding out the football field had been vandalized, Spitler learned his daughter, Morgan, would undergo an emergency appendectomy. Morgan Spitler, a softball player at Edinboro (Pa.) University, came through the surgery without incident.
“You go through these tests, not to find your weaknesses but to see what your strengths are. We had to dig deep,” Spitler said after Lucas held on for a 14-13 win over Hillsdale. “It’s been a heck of a week, but I couldn’t be more proud of our kids because they stayed focused and got it done when they needed to.”
Lucas isn’t scheduled to play at Bob Wine Field again until Sept. 16. Iceman hopes the field will be playable for its final three regular season home dates.
“We’ll put some lipstick on the pig and try to get through the season,” Iceman said. “I don’t know if we’ll have to tear out a section of the field and re-sod it after the season. We’re just trying to get through right now.”
Regardless of what happens, Iceman was humbled by the outpouring of support from Lucas and beyond.
“That is the part of the story we want to emphasize,” Iceman said. “The good outweighed the bad.”
