WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY'S NEW
SYNTHETIC TURF FIELD -
SMITH FIELD
RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY HELD APRIL 29, 2006 AND NAMING CEREMONY HELD
OCTOBER 21, 2006
With an official ceremony Saturday. April 29, including a
ribbon-cutting by head men's lacrosse coach John Raba, Wesleyan opened its
new artificial turf field. Then on Saturday, October 21, 2006 during
Wesleyan's Homecoming/Family Weekend festivities, the field received its
name - Smith Field, in honor of major benefactor Warren "Renney" Smith '78
and his wife, Tiina. Located in the Long Lane property acquired by
Wesleyan from the State of Connecticut several years ago, the turf field had been
under construction since the fall of 2005, and made its varsity debut when
the field hockey team hosted Babson College Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006. A
view of the finished field appears above. The turf
field is lined for lacrosse, field
hockey and soccer and will be used mainly for lacrosse
during the spring and field hockey during the fall. According to
Director of Athletics John Biddiscombe, there has been an increasing trend
toward the use of synthetic turf fields among schools in northern climates
over the past four years. Wesleyan has traveled to Springfield
College, Trinity College, Connecticut College and West Haven High School
over this time for "home" games during the spring and fall due to
unplayable conditions on Wesleyan's grass fields. Currently all NESCAC
colleges except Wesleyan and Amherst have a turf field and shortly all 11
will be outfitted with synthetic playing fields. "I think [the new
synthetic turf field] will be a big help because we will finally have
Wesleyan turf as our turf field instead of playing at Trinity," said Fiona
Lundy '08, who is a member of the women's lacrosse team. "It will be
great to play here and get more fans out." The synthetic turf field
will allow Wesleyan's varsity teams to practice and play when the grass
fields are unplayable. Although it will be geared toward field
hockey and lacrosse teams, numerous other varsity and recreational sport
teams will have opportunity to use the new field. Planning for the
new field began over two years ago. The project has been completely
funded by gifts from alumni, parents and friends of Wesleyan athletics.
Nearly $1 million has been raised with plans for another $300,000 to
support lights, bleachers, a scoreboard and protective netting.
While Coach Raba, representing the athletic department, got to do the
honors with the scissors April 29, individuals representing the
administration, parents, alumni and student-athletes all gathered for the
official ceremony, which featured short speeches from Biddiscombe ; Alumni
Director John Driscoll ; Preston Smith '64, father of men's lacrosse
player Matt Smith '06, who helped spearhead the project with other parents
and alumni ; and Raba. A tasty barbeque followed the speeches.
NOTE: Portions of this paragraph were taken from an article
appearing the Wesleyan Argus Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2006
