A sinkhole in Santa Barbara High School’s track has thrown some hurdles in the way of practices and meets.

A 10-foot-wide hole is fenced off in the seventh and eighth lanes near the corner of the stadium after a leaky pipe caused soil erosion and created a sinkhole. The issue means the school can’t host meets, and the more than 100 athletes in the track program have had to change how they practice. 

“We’ve had to get creative,” said Todd Heil, athletic director for Santa Barbara High School. “Our track program and our coach, Olivia Perdices, has been really good at it, but she’s had to just get creative with practice on using other areas of the track in order to make sure our hurdlers and our sprinters have enough space.”

The hole is near the starting block area, which impacts where the athletes start their sprints and hurdles. The stadium was able to host meets last school year by increasing the number of heats that athletes ran, but no home meets have been held this year.

“I would think not being able to host track meets, especially if you’re a senior, is problematic,” Heil said. “I mean, your senior year, you want to be able to host, you didn’t get your senior track meet, so that’s a tough one right there for our senior athletes.”

The sinkhole also forced the athletes to alter how they run practices. They’ve had to move people around and use other areas of the track to make sure sprinters and hurdlers had enough room.

The issue has somewhat dampened the excitement for the new Peabody Stadium, which opened in 2020. Before the stadium opened, practices were held at Santa Barbara City College, according to Heil. 

The warranty has already expired, but Steve Venz, chief operations officer for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, said they are looking to see whether the district’s insurance will cover the cost of repairs. 

One of the track coaches first noticed a dip in the track in 2023 after heavy winter storms. 

Venz said they hired a crew to repair the surface of the field and initially thought it was just a drainage issue. In 2024, the dip returned.

In February 2025, the district had plumbers send a camera down a drainage pipe, and they discovered that one of the pipes was damaged and leaking, causing soil erosion.

After this year’s graduation, crews will be working to build a permanent structure so that the pipe doesn’t break again, Venz said. Final repair costs have not been finalized but are estimated at $250,000. 

For the June 10 graduation, Venz said they plan to put a cover over the hole and move all of the dirt and equipment elsewhere.