CHULA VISTA (KGTV) - A growing number of families are calling on the city of Chula Vista to fix local playing fields they say are putting young athletes at risk.
One of those athletes is 17-year-old Katherine Petersen, a local triathlete whose senior year was cut short after a serious injury at All Seasons Park.
“I heard this popping and mushing sound, and it was very scary. I was super scared,” Petersen said.
She says she was playing soccer when her foot got caught in a gopher hole.
“When I was coming out to try and take away an angle from a shot, I happened to step in the gopher hole and my knee got caught. My knee hyperextended backwards,” she recalled.
The injury has left her sidelined and in a brace for weeks.
“It definitely took a toll on me. I cried a lot that night. I didn’t realize how much I had lost in the moment,” Petersen said. “So slowly as time’s going by in the brace, I realized how much was taken away from me… it’s just really depressing.”
It’s a story that echoes what other young athletes have experienced.
Earlier this fall, 12-year-old soccer player Ray Lomingkit told ABC 10News he rolled his ankle after stepping into a hole while playing on another Chula Vista field.
“It’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of holes,” Lomingkit said.
After those reports, several other parents reached out to ABC 10News sharing similar concerns about uneven ground, gopher damage, and safety hazards.
“It’s just so sad because it feels like it’s something that should have been taken care of,” Petersen added. “It’s no longer in our hands, and even though we’re the ones paying the price for it, we can’t do anything.”
The city previously cited its long-term plan to improve local parks and fields through Measure P, which funds infrastructure projects across Chula Vista.
But we reached out to the city again. A spokesperson told 10News in a statement:
The City is aware of the concerns raised regarding field conditions, and we recognize the importance of providing safe, playable spaces for youth sports. Active turf athletic fields experience significant wear throughout the year, especially with overlapping seasons and continuous play. To address this, we are currently evaluating our field closure and rest periods, and in some cases, we will need to extend field closures to allow turf recovery and preserve long-term field quality. Extending these rest cycles is a short-term measure to help prevent further deterioration and support player safety.
In addition to operational adjustments, the City is planning long-term improvements to park and field infrastructure through Measure P and the upcoming Measure P 2.0 program. These future investments will address underlying issues such as drainage, grading, irrigation, and turf renovation. We also continue to meet with youth sports organizations and user groups to understand their needs and coordinate scheduling in ways that balance play access with responsible field stewardship.
Petersen hopes city officials will take faster action before more athletes get hurt.
“They need to make sure that every single kid playing on a bad field is protected — stop it before it happens again,” she said.
The city says it’s continuing to meet with youth sports organizations and community groups to coordinate and balance safe play access across its parks.
