The new track and playing field is predicted to be finished by September 11th, 2024. The turf will be under construction this summer and will affect preseason practices for field hockey, soccer and football.
“It’ll definitely affect … captain’s practices,” Athletic Director Quaron Pinckney said. “We’ll have to get a little creative and play at Leddy, … the Grassfield, behind the bleachers and … [on] other fields that we utilize.”
BHS’s turf is 17 years old, well past the typical 8-10 year lifespan. Varsity soccer player Ed Lyons 25’ says the current turf is “pretty rough”.
“There’s a lot of patches where there’s a lot of turf … piled up,” Lyons said. “And then there’s spots where there’s just barely any.”
In synthetic turf, like on our current field, there are rubber beads made out of recycled tires. These beads help to make the field last longer and stay ready for activity. When these crumbs wear down over time, it makes the turf less level, which can lead to more injuries. The new turf will have a shock pad underneath it that will make it hurt less when you fall.
”Hopefully, [the new turf and shock pad will mean] less concussions [and] less major injuries,” Athletic Director Quaron Pickney said.
In addition to increased risk of injuries, old turf can affect how fast balls move and how sports scores play out. Lyons has seen this first hand.
“[The old turf alters play] especially when there’s penalties,” Lyons said. “There’s a scratch where the ball is supposed to go [and so] it can go anywhere.”
The turf will have multipurpose grass and will still have rubber beads, but they will be significantly less visible. In addition, there will be a black coated fence around the arena and netting on each end of the turf. Pickney hopes that the nets will save on wear and tear of the track from errant lacrosse balls – as well as safety.
“When you’re trying to run multiple practices at the same time, it’s obviously safer with [fewer]…, soccer balls [and] lacrosse balls … flying all over the place,” Pickney said.
Varsity Soccer Captain Tessa Napolitano ‘25 is excited about the nets behind the turf as well.
“I am very excited for the new nets because collecting the balls takes a lot of time out of practice,” Napolitano said. “During games this will help speed up plays after shots have been missed.”
The new turf is expected to cost 2.3 million dollars. Athletic Directors Hayes and Pickney worked with the Executive Director of Finance Nathan Lavery to pay for the fields without the help of the school bond. They were able to earmark money for the last couple of years, as well as reserve money they had in previous budgets to foot the bill.
Pickney said there were many factors that slowed down the improvements like COVID and the availability of materials and construction workers, but the biggest impediment was the bidding process.
“If a project costs $500,000 or more, you have to put it out to bid,” Pinckney said. “You have to get at least two bids. And…you can’t move forward with the project until you get that second bid. So we were finally able to secure that second bid this year,” Pickney said.
Lily McArthur ‘26 is a Varsity Girls Lacrosse and Field Hockey player and is skeptical about the new turf.
“The past couple of years people have been saying we are getting a new turf, but it hasn’t ever happened,” McArthur said. “I think a lot of people still don’t really trust that they are going to [finish] this summer.”
