Manning Field seeing plenty of action this fall

Manning Field has been a beehive of activity this fall, with the city’s four high schools and the Pop Warner and Youth Football programs all calling the nearly completed facility home.With three weeks of the high school football season still remaining, four of the city’s high school soccer teams qualifying for the state tournament and a couple of East Lynn and West Lynn Pop Warner teams still alive in their respective playoffs, Manning Field/Fraser Field facilities manager John Kasian is expecting plenty more action at the field before the place gets buttoned up for the winter.Kasian said he’ll know Wednesday whether any of the four Lynn soccer teams – the St. Mary’s boys and girls, and the Classical and English boys – will get a home game, and he’s also hoping the field will be selected as a neutral site for North semifinal, final or Eastern Mass. final games.High school football fans may also get an opportunity to see some postseason action at Manning. Kasian said he’s hopeful Lynn will be the site of a football doubleheader on Tuesday, Dec. 2. The winners of those play-in games would advance to their respective Super Bowls at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 6. The play-in games feature set league matchups such as the Greater Boston League champ playing the Catholic Conference winner, the Northeastern Conference Large champ playing the Cape Ann League Large winner and the Northeastern Conference Small champ playing the Catholic Central League Large winner.”Those are the types of games that could become a doubleheader for us,” Kasian said.Although the facility is fully operational (the concession stand was available for the various booster clubs to use in early October), there are still a few things left on the to-do list. The concession stand still needs some work and the 21×21-foot storage building planned for the scoreboard side of the field has yet to be built. Kasian said there’s also some work to be done to make some of the offices housed in the press box/concession/team room building functional. The good news for the media is that the press box now has Internet access and for those who have opted to go green and bike to games, Kasian said there should be a bike rack installed in the very near future.Looking down the road a bit, Kasian said there’s a good chance one of the state track meets will be held at Manning Field next year, and he’s hoping to get some lacrosse tournament games.”We want to be a regular player in postseason activity in all the various sports being contested there,” Kasian said.Kasian said that down the road, Manning Field could also be used for drum and bugle corps competitions, adult soccer tournaments and possibly summer camps. He said he’s also hoping the track can be used by the public for walking next spring.”Of the 61 days in September and October, there really wasn’t a day when there wasn’t something in there, and some days there were multiple events,” he said.