On the Field, Dunbar Finds Victory; In the Locker Room, Rust and Neglect

Kierra Roulhac, 16, co-captain of the girls' track team, said the showers are so nasty that students refuse to use them. After physical education class or an early morning practice, most students opt to go to class without showering.

Last year, she said, 10 of the girls on the track team would shower at the nearby home of a teammate's grandmother. But the girl graduated, and the team is looking for another place to shower. Until then, Roulhac said, "I'll just spray perfume on myself."

DeAnna Brown, 16, who was all-Met on the track team and Gatorade's D.C. athlete of the year last school year, said the locker rooms lack dispensers for female hygiene products. The products are kept in a brown box in the office of the team's male coach, Marvin Parker.

"These students bring back the championships, and this is what they get?" Parker asked.

Kadijah Sall, 17, ran with her cross-country teammates on the sidewalk around the perimeter of the school on a recent afternoon, dodging pedestrians and debris. Their other "practice field" is the hallway of the five-story building. Neither is an ideal running surface, but each is safer than Dunbar's track. School system officials condemned the track four years ago because its potholes, puckers and sunken areas make it dangerous.

"You can get a twisted ankle," Sall said.

Parker said the track was improperly installed with one layer of coating instead of three. It also was damaged by two problems that were not fixed -- a faulty filtration system and a hole that opened when a maintenance worker accidentally ran over the surface with a riding mower, Dunbar Athletic Director Reginald A. Gordon said. Water worked its way into the hole, causing the track to pucker.

Gordon, watching the football team during a recent scrimmage, pointed out other problems: A chain-link fence surrounding the field has had numerous holes cut through it, allowing trespassers to enter at night. Sometimes, Gordon said, students find dog feces on the field, used condoms in the stands and broken glass on the track. Over the years, thieves made off with parts from the public-address system and several rows of metal bleachers.

Sports programs at the District's 141 public schools are operating on a systemwide budget of $1.9 million a year, down from $2.9 million during the mid-1990s, said Allen E. Chin, the school system's director of athletics. In addition to losing the $1 million, Chin said, the schools were required to pick up such costs as salaries for assistant coaches and leased buses to transport students to games.

Chin compiled a list of about 240 items that need to be fixed at about 40 schools, more than a fourth of the buildings in the system.

Among the problems: Coolidge Senior High in Northwest can no longer offer the high-jump event because of a sinkhole near the track. The swimming pools at H.D. Woodson Senior High in Northeast as well as Roosevelt and Wilson in Northwest are closed indefinitely for repairs. The pool at Cardozo Senior High in Northwest has been closed for 12 years.

When looking at the budget, education "should come first," Chin said. A good athletic program, though, "can encourage kids to stay in school," he added. "It keeps them off the street."

Given budget constraints and a mammoth effort to turn around 118 schools that failed to make academic benchmarks, the prospects for increasing funding for athletics are dim, said Thomas M. Brady, the system's business operations officer. "The resources of the District of Columbia public schools are directed to improving academics," he said.

School board member William Lockridge (District 4), said he intends to push for more money. "The board has to do a better job of selling [the need for more sports funding] to the mayor and city council," he said.

That job might get easier now that ESPNU, a sister network of ESPN, plans to televise Dunbar's game against Coolidge on Oct. 20. "We like to get footage of the campus, and we like to sit down with the coaching staff and the top stars to talk about the issues around each program," said Tilea Coleman, a spokeswoman for ESPN.

The Rev. Lionel Edmonds, president of the Washington Interfaith Network, which has been pressing the sports facility issue with the school system, said he hopes Janey will agree to make improvements at Dunbar in time for the telecast.

"You don't need a long-term strategy to get toilet paper in the restrooms, replace missing doors on the stalls and to fix the showers," he said. "We're talking about human dignity."

Staff writer Alan Goldenbach contributed to this report.