CC SA-BY Our Oakland
Rickey Henderson Field was built in 2007-2008 on the former Carter Middle School field by Oakland Technical High School parents, alumni and community members. The group raised $350,000 in cash and in-kind donations and volunteers built the field. The field is maintained by Oakland Field of Dreams, a 501(c)3 organization created to manage the field.
Prior to building the field, Tech students had to walk to Bushrod Park to play baseball- 1.5 miles away. Now Tech Students, the Oakland Athletic League which includes students from all Oakland public high schools which participate in the Baseball League, North Oakland/South Oakland Little League, Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken Baseball and NOLL/SOLL's Challenger teams play at the field. Students at Oakland International High School use the field for PE classes in order for them to meet OUSD graduation requirements.
In 2014, Oakland International High School students who participate in a program called Soccer without Borders began to petition the Oakland Unified School District to convert Rickey Henderson Field into a multi-use space. The school doesn't have a soccer field, so students have been playing soccer on cement behind the school. Soccer without Borders is a program that enhances the quality of life for marginalized youth, especially the kind of international students who are at OIHS. According to an East Bay Express article (which is heavily slanted towards the soccer field and makes no mention of the baseball diamond's history), "The petition, which currently has 2,111 signatures, calls for creating a soccer field at Oakland International High School, converting the existing baseball facility at the adjacent Oakland Technical High School into a baseball-softball facility, and adding a retractable outfield fence between the two fields that could be removed to create a full-size soccer field. When not in use by Oakland Unified School District sports teams, the multipurpose field space (dubbed “Temescal Fields”) would be open to the community."
View the two petitions here:
