Lights, track, turf! New Hempstead High athletic field completed

With efficiency, straightforward words, and a passionate atmosphere of community, Hempstead officials, students, and parents celebrated the ribbon-cutting on the first upgrade of the high school athletic field in half a century.

Hempstead School Superintendent Regina Armstrong wielded the scissors while the air thundered with cheers and applause.

The grass field has been replaced with artificial turf, the track is completely resurfaced, and powerful lights will allow the school to host night games for the first time in Hempstead Village history.

Construction Journal estimated the construction cost at $2,660,000 last March. The new field is part of a $6.2 million project involving the fields at both the high school and at A.G.B. Schultz Middle School.

Assistant Superintendent for Special Programs James Clark emceed. He opened the ceremony by leading the pledge of allegiance before calling Armstrong to the podium.

“Here we are, it’s happening, Hempstead! Give yourselves a round of applause,” Armstrong said, and then thanked the Hempstead Board of Education for their hard work of researching and approving the bond to be put before voters. The bond was approved in May 2022.

School board president Lamont Johnson guided the rest of the ceremony. He acknowledged a lengthy roster of officials, administrators, and politicians, past and present, who attended the event.

“I could not be more happy as your County Executive to see such a beautiful facility in our great county,” said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. “Go, Tigers!”

“This is a magnificent field,” said Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin. “You’re going to be great competition, and the only thing I wish you all is success and health.”

“This is exactly why I get up every day and work so hard for each and every one of you,” said New York State Assemblywoman Taylor Darling, “because this field is one of very many things that you all deserve.”

Comments from former school board president and deputy mayor Charles Renfroe, former Mayor James Garner, current Mayor Waylyn Hobbs, Jr., and trustees Kevin Boone and Clariona Griffith rounded out the first part of the program.

“The day would not be complete,” said Johnson, “if we did not bring up the person who has been most involved with Hempstead athletics for more than 50 years, probably more than 60 years, the honorable Donald Lenox Ryan.”

Ryan, himself a former Hempstead mayor who taught business at Hempstead High for 33 years, delivered a quick, fact-rich history of the successes that made Hempstead High athletic teams renowned across the country. He noted that the present football team co-captains, Dwayne Meadors (jersey #22) and Chris Lake (jersey#9) are the sons of Hempstead football players Walter Meadors and Wayne Lake.

“In the 1980s we had the most wins of any high school in New York State,” Ryan said. “We had a 34-game winning streak. We won three Rutgers cups and two state championships.”

Ryan pointed out that the field is named for Charles Mills, a former Hempstead High principal whose brother, Ollie Mills, became the first teacher of color in the Hempstead district in 1957.

Mills successfully coached lacrosse, basketball, and football teams, which included the renowned player Joe Blocker.

Mills, former basketball champion Al Williams, and Joe Fay, the Hempstead High coach 1920-1947, who oversaw seven undefeated football seasons and two national championships in girls’ basketball, will all be inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame in October.

Johnson acknowledged the presence of his 1989 classmate, Hempstead Police Chief Richard Holland, who congratulated the students and parents, and former school board president Shelley Brazley. He invited Mateo Flores to the podium.

Flores is director of the Hempstead Economic Opportunity Commission. He started the EOC/Hempstead CAP Youth Soccer Program in 1991.

“One of the things that I love about Hempstead is that we are one community,” Flores said, “and today the field behind us shows that, because we’re going to be able to play soccer here.”

Flores had just returned from taking 22 Hempstead soccer youth to play an international cup in El Salvador. His team took second place.

Rev. Dr. Sedgwick Easley, senior pastor of Union Baptist Church, commented to the crowd, “This is a place to remind us that Hempstead is a place of victory.”

Bringing the speaking to a close, each of the school board trustees thanked the community, the school staff, and the students for their participation in developing the new athletic field.

“I went to school here in the late 1980s,” said trustee Victor Pratt. “You always hear about how great the football team was, but there should be an asterisk next to that. The middle of this field used to be bald. There was no grass. We had patches, we had divots, we had potholes. And still we had people like Antoine Moore, one of the best running backs on Long Island at the time. … I’ve been through the worst and you’re getting the best.”

A representative from the office of Deputy Town Supervisor Dorothy Goosby, who could not attend, presented a citation to Armstrong and the school board.

Then Armstrong cut the ribbon and the athletes and cheerleaders ran joyfully onto their new field.