Ryan ChartrandStudents, intramural teams and sports clubs at Cal Poly will soon be able to play all year round on the new turf fields currently being installed at the Upper Sports Complex. The fields are part of the Recreation Center Expansion, which was approved by 75 percent of students who voted last year.
“Athletics will use them occasionally, but they’re there for the students,” University Union advisory board chair Carl Payne said.
Three synthetic turf fields will replace grass fields that students didn’t like because they couldn’t use them during bad weather or while they were being reconditioned. One field will be permanently lined for soccer and another for flag football, Payne said.
“Students really wanted fields they could play on when it rained – fields that were constantly good quality,” he said. “It’s definitely something students were really passionate about, especially sports clubs and intramurals.”
One such team is the Cal Poly women’s field hockey club team, which is looking forward to playing on the new turf fields instead of the Rec Center field it has been using.
“We’ve been dying to get on turf fields for pretty much the entire time I’ve been here,” said club president Lisa Clark, who has been on the team for five years. “For field hockey, everything we do is on the ground. We play on the Rec Center field and it’s so uneven and bumpy. It’s kind of dangerous.”
Clark has played on turf fields before, such as those at UC Santa Barbara, and said she’s excited Cal Poly is “finally (getting) it.”
“It’s just a whole different game when you’re playing on it,” Clark said. “You can do more moves, you’re faster and it’s really good. We probably have the worst field in the league right now for field hockey.”
Clark put in a request for the team’s championship game to be played on the new fields and said she hopes they’re ready by then.
Payne said the fields should be done by the end of fall quarter and will be available for student use at the beginning of winter quarter. The use policy is still being developed, but he said there will be open hours when students can play on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Some time will be blocked off for specific games, but “ASI has a commitment to preserving that space for student use,” Payne said.
Even teams that prefer playing their sports on a traditional grass field will benefit from the new fields.
The Cal Poly rugby club normally plays on the Lower Sports Complex fields and president Ben Cannon said the team probably wouldn’t use the turf fields except during bad weather or if all the other fields were already taken.
“It’s important because I hope that with these new fields, we can have more time on our own field, and hopefully it will be in better shape for our games,” Cannon said.
Cannon prefers to play on grass fields because rugby players get tackled often and turf fields, often made of ground-up tires, can cause severe rug burns.
“If I had to play on turf, I would do it, but you can’t beat a well-kept grass field,” he said. “It will definitely give us a lot more options so we can get the practice in that we’d really like to have.”
Students interested in the progress of the turf fields can check out the ASI Web site (asi.calpoly.edu) and click on the ASI facility construction link, where a live Web cam of the turf installation is available.