New padlocks installed on baseball field gates

In August, the administration replaced old locks on the baseball field to prohibit casual entrance onto both the baseball and football fields. Since everyone from the baseball team and Los Altos Little League knew the combination to the previous locks, people could easily gain access to the field at their convenience.

Varsity head coach Sandy Wihtol made the executive decision to change the locks when he realized the consequences of giving his players and the Los Altos Little League community full-time access to field equipment.

“There seemed to be a lack of consciousness among the people that were using the facilities and that they, too, have a responsibility to maintain the field and facilities,” Wihtol said. “I was finding that mats were left out on the grass, the pitching machine was left uncovered, batting cages were left open, and people were forgetting to lock back up the gates.”

After coaching at the school for the past 14 seasons, Wihtol said that there seemed to be a loss of respect for the facilities that needed to be addressed.

“The school has some of the best facilities, and from the baseball program’s perspective, the message had to be sent that it’s not a right to have a field to call your own,” Wihtol said. “It’s a privilege, and with a privilege also comes an obligation.”

Coach Wihtol said that no one person was to blame for the misuse of the equipment.

“It is not just the players, it is also the Little League community,” Wihtol said. “I trusted people to look after everything as if were their own.”

After discovering that locks to the field were replaced, some players said that they shared the frustrations of the coaching staff.

“When people start to ruin a field that Sandy puts a ton of his time into making really nice, it just shows that some people don’t realize what he had to do,” varsity baseball player senior Nicky Young said.

Since the baseball coaches are the only ones who have the new keys, baseball players can no longer use the field and facilities at their leisure .

“At first, I thought it was a bad idea because a bunch of the guys on the team use the field every week,” varsity baseball player senior Keegan Kliman said. “But I can understand it too since he said things were getting stolen.”

The coaching staff will also convene off-season training since the baseball players no longer have full access to field equipment.