Santa Paula Times
By Peggy Kelly

Local soccer fans have plenty to celebrate with the big win of new soccer fields in Limoneira’s East Area 1 on December 2, where company President/CEO Harold Edwards took to the fields with his son Blake for some play. The eight-acre site contains two adjacent soccer fields that will be open to the city’s numerous youth and adult league players, who have long requested the city’s shortage of space be corrected. Of course, reservations will be required.

The fields were donated to the city by Limoneira, Agromin provided the mulch, and Edwards said Limoneira workers “laser leveled it... before, there was nothing here,” but now there are acres of field against a dramatic mountain backdrop. “Look at this, isn’t it great?” Edwards said excitedly as players took to the fields.

The creation of the fields brought back memories to Edwards. “When I was a little kid” in the mid-1970s, “my mother (Marcia) started AYSO” in the local area.

The dedication included a field blessing as well as a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included Vice Mayor Jim Tovias and Councilmen Bob Gonzales and Fred Robinson. Edwards said completion of the first 500 residences of the East Area 1 development would act as a trigger to convert the use of the fields to a catch basin, and move the soccer facilities “to the 35 acre sports” park Limoneira will create.

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