New turf leaves field hockey without home
The Board of Trustees’ allocation of nearly $1 million for turf replacement on Kelly/Shorts Stadium has created a problem for coach Cristy Freese and the field hockey team.
They have no place to play.
The stadium’s current artificial turf has been deemed unplayable by the athletics department and bids are being accepted for a new synthetic turf that is similar to grass.
Products like FieldTurf are being considered, but the length of the grass-like fibers are unacceptable for NCAA field hockey standards for practical reasons.
“It would be like a golfer putting from the rough,” Freese said.
On March 4, the board approved $975,000 for the project, which would bring the stadium up to the standards of modern Division 1-A football surfaces.
The field hockey team was also bracing for an upgrade of facilities. Initial bids from construction companies project that a new field hockey facility west of Lyle Bennett track would cost the university approximately $800,000.
“The university just doesn’t have that kind of money right now,” University President Michael Rao said.
The multi-fold controversy entails gender issues for the simple fact that a men’s team’s problems are being addressed at the expense of a women’s team.
“I’m just concerned that we don’t finalize plans for the football field without addressing the needs of the field hockey team,” Freese said.
Freese meets with Athletics Director Herb Deromedi “almost daily” to discuss viable options for this fall’s season.
At the board meeting, the trustees made several suggestions of alternatives for the field hockey team’s 2004 season, including playing in the turf bay of the Indoor Athletic Complex.
However, that surface is too small and creates an unsafe environment for the team, Freese said.
Other options include playing all away games or designating another field, such as Michigan State University, as CMU’s home field for the year.
“That would mean we would be traveling for 12 consecutive weeks,” said Freese, adding that the players would be fatigued and forced to miss even more class time. “The academic issue is the most important.”
Freese met with Rao Thursday for what the president called a “positive” meeting.
“She is definitely a team player,” Rao said. “I have a lot of respect for how she is handling this.”
Freese said the issue is bothering her, but is not blaming the football program for the conflict.
“I have woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this,” she said, adding, “this is not a field hockey versus football issue at all.”
Rao found out about the field hockey situation at a board facilities subcommittee meeting Feb. 23.
“I’m still in a bit of a state of shock,” Rao said. “We have known about this need for more than a year and a half. In comparison, I have known about this particular problem for less than a month.”
Rao said that Deromedi, as a Division 1-A athletics director, must be responsible and explore as many options as possible to make the correct decisions.
“I told him that we are counting on his leadership at this time,” Rao said.
