Houston, we have a ... new Astroturf field

Author: Peter Baumann

As Erin Quinn '86 sat in his office during his first semester as Middlebury's Athletic Director, he contemplated a problem: heavy rains were turning his once pristine fields into pock-marked mud-pits. The College's soccer fields were receiving the majority of both weather-related abuse and Quinn's attention.

"The Athletic Department has been discussing the deteriorating condition of the men's soccer field for several years," said Quinn. But last year the issue came to a head when, with their field unplayable, the men were forced to play their home games on the smaller Dragone Field, normally the home of the women's soccer team. This caused a domino affect, as the heavy workload on Dragone resulted in the women playing two late season "home" games on the Astroturf of Kohn Field, a surface that Quinn recognizes as "not conducive to soccer," and the synthetic turf at St. Michaels College in Burlington.

"It was at this point that we realized even one more year [of sharing the field] would result in the rapid deterioration of the women's field as well," said Quinn, "so we needed to replace the men's field."

While donations for a new soccer field had been coming in for the better part of the last three years, the College would need to build up a larger reserve before they could break ground on construction.

This task fell to Hieu Nguyen '92, a senior development officer. Instead of initiating a formal Capital Campaign, Nguyen began contacting specific alumni and friends of the College searching for gifts.

"The most challenging aspect of fund raising for the new field [was] keeping donors interested," said Nguyen. "Once soccer alumni and friends of the men's program knew the College was committed to building a new field, contributions and enthusiasm for the project steadily increased."

As funds amassed, it became clear that money would not be an obstacle to opening the field in time for the start of the 2007 season.

While Nguyen continued searching for funds, Quinn teamed up with men's soccer coach Dave Saward and one of the college's project managers, Mark Gleason, to determine the specifics of the playing surface. With the destruction of last year's fields fresh in their minds, Quinn and the rest of the committee decided that a synthetic playing surface was their most viable option. Faced with the numerous artificial turf surfaces on the market today, the committee entered into an exhaustive process.

"A rather comprehensive search and survey was made for the field material," said Gleason, "with visits and calls made to many regional schools that have recently installed synthetic surfaces."

Upon the completion of this search, three companies, with a combined total of seven possible field surfaces, were invited to bid on the work. Combined with the five companies invited to place a bid on the dirt-moving portion of the project, the College had eight bids to consider.

In the end, the committee settled on SD Ireland out of Burlington for the landscape portion of the project and handed the field to Field Turf Tarkett, the same outfit that recently installed artificial playing surfaces for the Atlanta Falcons, University of Michigan and countless other football and soccer teams. According to Gleason, these companies were selected based on a combination of "reputation, experience, product and cost."

The turf that Tarkett laid down is a product known as FieldTurf Duo, a monofilament turf with sand and rubber infill. The sand and rubber combine to create a playing surface with the cushion of a natural surface while maintaining the durability inherent to a synthetic one. Recognizing a hesitancy to change on the part of many players and coaches, part of the reason Quinn felt comfortable switching to an artificial surface was the quality of this new technology.

"The synthetic fields now available offer a playability much like grass," the committee determined. The field will not be susceptible to the elements, a desirable quality that satisfied Quinn and the rest of the committee.

"Late in the season when many of our grass fields are unplayable we will still have ideal playing conditions," Quinn said. "Additionally, if we become concerned about the condition of our women's soccer fieldÖwe will always have the option of them playing their games on the synthetic field [as well]." Additionally, Quinn envisions the artificial surface as able to allow the intramural program to get started earlier in the Spring semester while the grass fields are still wet from runoff.

The field was inaugurated two Saturdays ago, with Middlebury posting a 2-0 win against Connecticut College. Those that arrived saw a state-of-the-art playing surface wonderfully framed against the backdrop of the Green Mountains. What they failed to realize was that this moment was the result of a year of hard work behind the scenes by Saward, Quinn, Nguyen, Gleason and many others.

"Middlebury athletics is very lucky to have such passionate leaders at the helm," said Nguyen of Saward and Quinn, while downplaying his and Gleason's own roles. "[We're] even more fortunate to have such supportive and enthusiastic alumni to stand behind its programs."

Early feedback on the field has been positive beyond even the twin 2-0 victories that the Panthers have posted this year.

"It's nice to have a consistent field," said midfielder Mike Spiak '10. "The old field got torn up pretty easily, and while I would prefer to play on grass, given the choice I love the consistency that [the new field] offers." In at least one way, the team has made it seem as if the new field was put in place to foster its own, unique style of play.

"The ball stays on this type of surface more [than it would on grass]," adds Spiak "and we are a more technical team than we have been in the past."

From the team playing on the new field to the team that designed it, the entire process exemplified Middlebury's commitment to improvement.

Now in his second year as Athletic Director, Quinn can sleep a little easier with the knowledge that, through hard work and dedication, he has managed to eradicate one of the problems that he faced when he first stepped into office. But just because the new field has already been dedicated and Middlebury has already earned a shutout victory, it does not mean Quinn is lounging in his chair with his feet on the desk.

It is no accident that Middlebury is home to some of the highest-quality athletic facilities in the conference-they are the product of effective fund raising and leadership.

In completing the soccer field project, Quinn and the rest of the committee managed to not only solve the problem, but they also provided the Panthers with the finest playing surface in the NESCAC.