About Lane Tech

March 15, 2007

Questions and Answers about the NFL Grant Awarded to Lane Tech

By: Neil Hernandez

Answered by: Luis Munoz (Fields of Dreams Committee Member) and Marie Goss (Chairperson, Fields of Dreams Committee, the Lane Tech Century Foundation)

I thought Lane Tech Fan readers would want to know more about the latest update on the $200,000 NFL grant that they’ve recently awarded to Lane Tech and the progress the Fields of Dreams committee. So I asked Fields of Dreams Committee member and Lane Tech Assistant football coach Luis Munoz if he can provide some answers. Below is his response.

Why did the NFL give us this grant?

The NFL had several conditions that had to be met before they awarded us this grant. I'll just name a couple here. 1.) Their 200 was to be matched with 400 from the Board. 2.) Their 200 does not include the track. To date, the Board has said no to funding a track. 3.) There has to be at least a 5 year maintenance plan. 4.) The community had to accept this. 5.) It is to benefit all north side schools including grammar schools. There are more but you get the idea.

The NFL evaluated many grant requests. I believe we are one of possibly 10-15 that will be awarded. The Chicago Bears were heavily involved with this! We should all give them a huge round of applause.

Who was responsible for getting us this grant?

The responsibility of this grant lies with the Fields of Dreams. I can not tell you the battles that we had with the Board and it wasn't until the lights were installed that the Board began to play ball. That's when the lawyers started showing up and the FOD knew there was no turning back for the Board. The Board was not even considering Lane for this grant until the FOD, Football Booster Club, and the Lane Tech Century Foundation forced them into playing ball by buying and installing the lights with out a cent from the Board.

Who decides how this money is going to be allocated?

The Board is responsible for all the monies. The FOD dreams is allowed oversight and recommendations as the project proceeds.

What’s next?

The three groups would like to thank all those that contributed to either organization for this project. My understanding is that Soccer, LaCrosse, and hopefully Track & Field will be playing night games during their next seasons.

The next two important steps are, 1.) Obtaining funding for the track. 2.) Meeting with the Park District and the Cubs to get the baseball field going. The Cubs are eager to help. The Olympics may be slowing things down with the Park District but they have been on our side since day one. The FOD is not too concerned with the Park District.

I also asked Marie Goss, Chairperson of the Fields of Dreams committee if she would like to add anything else. Below is her response:

Would you like to add anything else?

As far as the NFL grant, the FOD could not apply because we don't own the
property.  There are some corporate grants that we would like to apply for
but we can't because we don't own the property.  We tried to get the board
to apply for the Bowerman grant (Nike's track grant & we would have
qualified) but they won't consider it and they will not fund the track.

There is a possibility that the track funding might be accomplished (we
can't go into any details because negotiations are still underway & a
final commitment has not be given) and we are now turning our attention to
funding a baseball stadium.  We need to send the word out to all alumni
that we need to raise $1M.  The Cubs are interested but we need to come up
with the total funding package.  Any suggestions, help, contacts would be
great.

On a secondary note, I like how you have the website set up and it's a
great tribute to Lane's students and athletes….Thanks for including this information on your website.  

Hopefully, there are some alumni out there who can help us out.  Our committee is dedicated
to helping ALL the sports/athletes of Lane Tech.