Chris Perry Column: Who is Manny Garcia?

Before answering that question, I think we can all agree that last week’s much-anticipated Board of Health meeting ended with an anti-climactic punt.

With community members packing the room, the end result was the BOH kicking the can and the topic of the turf field installation down the road to their meeting in May with the hopes representatives from the Nantucket Public Schools and the Nantucket Land and Water Council can come up with suitable testing protocols for the proposed turf field for Vito Capizzo Stadium.

As the meeting moved along, true colors spilled out for all to see.

For example, it was clear BOH chairperson Ann Smith continues to search for a lifeline, feeling the pressure of the moment – opting to take a legal stance right out of the gate versus a conciliatory tone, especially with several student-athletes seated in the front rows.

Board of Health vice chair Meredith Lepore sparred with Town Counsel John Giorgio over the legality of her proposed “moratorium” while reconfirming an unwillingness to move off of her unrealistic testing demands.

The Nantucket Land and Water Council tried their best to flex their muscles. The question isn’t whether they deserve a seat at the table, but why they appear to want to sit at the head and dictate the menu.

Kate Garrette does her homework. After securing information through public records requests, Garrette publicly questioned the role Mike Hugo, Director of Policy & Government Relations for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, played in drafting Smith’s original motions, which sparked a firestorm of criticism at the last BOH meeting.

But once again, it was Select Board representative Tom Dixon who shined the brightest. Under the spotlight, he emphasized what most people already know.

“Trust has been lost, and we owe the public an apology.”

Moreover, it was Dixon’s patience, demeanor, and political savoir faire that continued to expose the widening gap that exists between him and his fellow Board of Health members, who are struggling to grasp the weight of the subject matter and the intensity of the community’s commitment to the cause.

As the three-hour-plus meeting dragged on, Nantucket’s Deputy Director of Health and Human Services Jerico Mele tried his best to herd the cats – directing comments and questions from the audience – while Town Counsel Giorgio earned his keep by staying engaged during the dinner hour.

However, it wasn’t the questions raised and sometimes answered that should be of concern to the Nantucket community. It was a specific comment voiced by Graham Veysey regarding Manny Garcia and the Newport–Mesa School District, which was noticeably ignored, that should cause you to pause and consider the potential repercussions of failing to act.

Emanuel “Manny” Garcia was a freshman football player in the Newport–Mesa Unified School District in California. He suffered a traumatic brain injury during a routine practice due to the “uneven terrain” of the practice field. As a result, Garcia sued Newport–Mesa, claiming his injuries caused a “life-altering brain bleed resulting in severe cognitive defects and emotional harm.”

In 2022, attorneys representing Garcia asserted the Newport–Mesa United School District received “repeated notices of the dangerous conditions of its natural turf field from various coaches.”

More specifically, coaches warned the school about the potential increase in head injuries as far back as 2016, highlighted by an e-mail from a coach to the school district warning them about the risks “due to lack of grass and water resulting in the field becoming too hard…”

Additionally, one Newport–Mesa lacrosse coach wrote, “The surface on which we are asking our student-athletes to practice and compete on a daily basis is bordering on unplayable. Our fields have become a safety concern, a liability issue and an extremely poor representation of our schools…”

Sound familiar?

It does to former Nantucket girls lacrosse coach Jamie Lower.

“Sandwich, Nauset, Falmouth, and many others hate coming over to Nantucket due to the playing conditions”, said Lower, who coached the varsity girls lacrosse team from 2016 to 2025.

Lower continued, “Unless it is absolutely impossible due to seedings, the MIAA balks at letting Nantucket host tournament games due to the poor field conditions. They know it, other schools know it, and, sadly, so do our players.”

“It got to a point where I tried everything to convince out-of-league schools to come to Nantucket and play,” Lower added. “As word traveled about our field conditions, it became even more difficult. One time, the Weston varsity girls lacrosse team came over to play, and when they got off the bus and looked at the field, the head coach said to me, “Is this a joke?”

Attorneys representing Garcia focused on the premise that the school district was negligent in maintaining the playing fields and opined, “Despite repeated notice of condition, the District failed to take action to make the natural turf fields safe and continued to allow and required student-athletes to practice and play there…”

Newport-Mesa is not an isolated case. Parents of a baseball player recently sued the Hampton Township (NJ) School District due to the “hidden and dangerous field conditions,” which led to their son tearing his labrum, ending his season.

It’s no secret that the playing conditions at the Vito Capizzo Stadium field are embarrassingly dangerous. Ask any Nantucket coach. Ask any Nantucket player. Ask any Nantucket parent.

The root of the problem is usage. It’s that simple. With field space demand at an all-time high and the playing conditions on the Vito Capizzo Stadium field at an all-time low, the only logical answer is the installation of an environmentally friendly, all-weather turf field designed specifically for consistent, high-intensity daily use with lower long-term maintenance expenses.

Vetted by independent experts Weston and Sampson and endorsed by the Nantucket School Committee, that product does exist.

Apparently, some members of the Board of Health disagree.

For the past several months, it has been their mission to convince the Nantucket community that the turf field slated for Vito Capizzo Stadium is inherently dangerous to the environment and unsafe for public use. However, what board members fail to acknowledge is the fact that the existing grass field is also known to be dangerous to play on and unsafe for public use.

You can’t have it both ways and marginalize a logical solution to an unsafe condition and then champion the unsafe status quo as a viable option.

It appears Board of Health members have failed to sincerely entertain the possibility that a turf field option could be a legitimate alternative to the unhealthy conditions that exist today. By making scientifically unattainable testing demands via a fast-track process, the focus has instead shifted away from what is truly in the best interest of the community to open meeting law violations, secret e-mails, outside influences, moratoriums and backdoor efforts to ban all turf fields.

Who loses?

The student-athletes of Nantucket who are asked to suit up and perform on an unsafe field.

Ironically, the clock is ticking for both sides. Until an agreement is reached, the possibility of a “Manny Garcia” type injury happening on Nantucket is very real. It is easy to connect the dots between the field conditions at Newport-Mesa and Vito Capizzo Stadium. While some injuries are simply part of the game, we can no longer assume that the “assumption of risk” that typically shields schools from being held liable through the normal course of play would provide blanket protection for the dangerous conditions that exist today. There is an obligation to provide student-athletes with safe playing conditions, and, bluntly, we simply have not done that in this case.

As for Manny Garcia, he reached a $31 million dollar settlement with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District over the traumatic brain injury he suffered during practice in 2021. His attorney noted, “The school district has taken responsibility for its failure to address the dangerous conditions of its field that harmed many children for more than a decade.”

Unlike Newport-Mesa, the Nantucket School Committee has taken the first realistic, long-term step towards addressing the unsafe conditions of the Vito Capizzo Stadium field.

For the Nantucket Board of Health, who wants a seat at the table, can they say the same thing?

I cannot answer that question for them, but I bet Manny Garcia hopes they resist the temptation to be a roadblock and suggests they jump on board before it’s too late.