Beatty is doing everything to comply with National Federation High Schools to get their home football games. It looks like Beatty will be having its home games in Beatty on the outfield of the baseball field.
The waiver the team needed from the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association should come through. It is dependent on a goalpost being installed. Although the post is not in yet, Nye County School District officials said the post is on its way. A portable post was purchased for the field for $2,000.
Looking through the eyes at the top is something that doesn’t happen too often. In this case, the PVT caught Dale Norton, Nye County Superintendent, in a good mood last week for that same morning he was just chosen to officiate at the Sollenberger Classic.
In the case of Beatty, Norton was the one that made the goalpost happen. “We will get something in there by NFHS rules and hopefully it will be approved. It sounded optimistic, once we get that done. We have three weeks. We should be OK. Then once this is done I will notify the NIAA that we complied with the NFHS rule of at least one post,” he told the PVT by phone.
It’s hard to find some positives about any negative situation, but the Nye County Superintendent Dale Norton went out of his way to solve this problem. He did this by listening to what the people wanted. Norton was told that going to Pahrump and Tonopah was out of the question and he was given three suggestions by locals up in Beatty, the Amargosa field, the park and the baseball field.
“My first thought when this first broke was, ‘What are we going to do?’ and ‘What is the nearest football facility we can put these folks at to make the season go?’ I was thinking football field and that’s how Tonopah and Pahrump came about. I was trying to solve a problem and get on the front end of it,” he said.
Sometimes listening can be tough, especially when all you’re listening to is negative talk.
“I then heard things from people that I did not say,” Norton said.
A meeting was arranged. People were tough on the district. They wanted to be heard. They were saying that they could not afford to go to Tonopah or Pahrump to see their kids play football. Norton could have just retreated but he went into the fire.
“I appreciate having the meeting with the parents. My first initial thought was you give me some suggestions I will be glad to listen to them. I am open to anything. On the Amargosa field, I thought at first that it my work. I helped put the original field in and today it’s just not in any condition to be played on. That was out. I never even thought about the park up there. They have since changed that, so that was out. I didn’t even think about the baseball field was the appropriate size until I went up there and looked at it and had it marked off,” he explained.
Although the baseball field seemed like a good idea, Norton had to think it through.
“I was looking at it through two lenses. I was looking at it through the lens for liability and through the lens of an official to see if it was a safe and acceptable field. I was not just looking at the playing field but 20 feet to 40 feet beyond that,” Norton remarked.
As far as the regular football field goes, Norton has some ideas going.
“We are putting proposals together for the board, looking at three options. One option is turf, but we don’t know where we will come up with that money. I wish we had the answer to this problem. I do have the answer, turf is it but we need the funding to do it,” he said.