SEATTLE – After years without its own athletic practice field, O’Dea High School is purchasing an unused field at St. Paul Parish in Seattle, the archdiocese announced January 31.
As an urban campus in the heart of First Hill, space limitations at O’Dea “make it difficult to run our athletic program,” said Jim Walker, O’Dea’s principal. “We currently bus our student-athletes to fields all over the city, even outside the city limits, for practices.”
O’Dea’s leadership determined that acquiring its own field was in the school’s best interest. The field at St. Paul is a “great solution to the lack of field space in the city,” Walker said. “At the same time, it offers a unique opportunity for us to partner with the parish and surrounding neighborhood.”
The agreement between O’Dea and St. Paul Parish is part of the archdiocese’s Catholic Real Estate Initiative. It aims to better serve communities and the mission of the Church by redeveloping underutilized properties for mission-critical uses, including strengthening Catholic schools.
“The Archdiocese of Seattle is undergoing pastoral planning, which calls upon each of us to ensure everything we do is focused on the mission of our Church. This includes how we use our buildings and our properties,” said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne. “I am very pleased that this agreement was possible because it strengthens our mission and benefits O’Dea High School, St. Paul Parish and the neighboring community.”
The St. Paul field, once used by the parish’s former elementary school, suffered a landslide in 2017. While the slope was stabilized, the field has been unusable ever since. The first course of action is for O’Dea to restore the property to once again be an athletic playfield for use by the high school and the local community.
Besides improving the field’s aesthetics for the parish and neighboring community, the sale will provide the parish with a boost of funding that can be used for other mission-critical efforts, such as capital building improvements and ministry outreach.
“We want to be good stewards of all the gifts we have” and the parish doesn’t have the resources to properly restore the field, said Father Scott Connolly, pastor at St. Paul, St. Edward, St. Peter and St. George parishes.
“We feel blessed to work with O’Dea High School on the project to re-envision our field in support of the mission to strengthen our Catholic schools,” Father Connolly said. “Selling the field to them gives them a great solution to their challenges and provides our parish with much-needed funding.”