The Dartmouth College Athletic Department announced plans to resurface Scully-Fahey Field with a FieldTurf surface by early 2008 and construct a new AstroTurf field by fall of 2008, according to athletic direction Josie Harper.
Word of the project, which was disclosed to players and coaches of varsity sports programs earlier in the week, comes several weeks after the DCAD initially said it would replace the existing AstroTurf 12 surface at Scully-Fahey with the same type of AstroTurf.
"The change that's been made is Scully-Fahey will be FieldTurf, and we will be looking to build a new turf field," Harper said in an interview Thursday evening. She added that the new field would be used almost exclusively by the field hockey program, but it could accommodate other recreation and intramural activities.
The reason for the change was largely influenced by the introduction of new support from donors of the project. The additional resources give the College the option of not only resurfacing Scully-Fahey with FieldTurf that can be used by the men's and women's lacrosse programs, but allows for the construction of a separate field with AstroTurf, an almost essential surface for college field hockey.
Harper said the new plan was discussed even after the initial details for Scully-Fahey were announced before the end of the Winter term.
"There's no question that we've always wanted to give each program a surface that suits their needs. Economically, it did not seem doable. But after taking it [the first plan] back to the administration and identifying some donors that support the project, they decided to invest in another field," Harper said
Time was the primary motivation for the resurfacing campaign. Several members of the DCAD conceded that the current artificial surface needed to be replaced due to natural wear and tear along with specific structural issues.
"The carpet was buckling, there were some tears, there were some inlay lies that were popping up and making it uneven," Harper said in an interview Wednesday, March 7.
AstroTurf fields typically last between eight and 10 years before the surface needs to be replaced, according to Harper and others involved in the project. The current turf at Scully-Fahey was installed in October 1999.
The major issue with the resurfacing project came down to how to best accommodate all of the varsity programs that use Scully-Fahey, particularly field hockey.
Men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse and field hockey all use the facility as their primary home venue and rely on Scully-Fahey heavily for practice space. While the lacrosse programs could feasibly play on both an AstroTurf field or a filled artificial surface, it is extremely difficult for field hockey teams to practice and play on anything but AstroTurf, where the ball can move swiftly and evenly at all times.
However, it is preferable to play lacrosse on a grass-like surface, where the ball will not roll as hard and fast along the ground.
Before the first announcement regarding the resurfacing project, there was speculation that the DCAD would choose to install a FieldTurf surface, which would accommodate two of the three varsity teams. This sparked talks of the field hockey team possibly playing its home games off-campus.
After deliberations, Harper originally believed it would be a crushing blow to the field hockey program, which endured some tough times during the fall 2006 season, if Scully-Fahey did not contain an AstroTurf surface.
"It would be extremely detrimental and could even be the demise of the program. There was nowhere to shuttle them around. I'm afraid that we wouldn't get teams to come play us and they might have to play away," she said.
Recent developments with donors changed the course for the project, as it allowed the DCAD to solve the problems in the current surface at Scully-Fahey and provide separate fields for the lacrosse programs and field hockey. Additionally, the new field gives the DCAD more facility space to use for other non-varsity activities.
"The more artificial surfaces you have, the better chance for more users. It gives a surface at Scully-Fahey for lacrosse, which are top-ten teams, but also give field hockey the surface they need," Harper said.
According to Harper, once field hockey ends its fall 2007 season on Thursday, Nov. 1, the Clark Companies -- the same company that handled the Memorial Field project in the summer of 2006 -- will rip out the old AstroTurf and lay down the FieldTurf by Friday, Feb. 1 of the following year, in time for lacrosse spring practice.
Over that time, construction will begin on the new AstroTurf field, which should be completed in time for the fall 2008 field hockey season.
A location for the new field has not been announced. Harper was confident that the field would be completed on schedule, but said there was discussion of alternatives for field hockey home games as a contingency plan.
Originally, Scully-Fahey was to be resurfaced over the summer of 2007, but the additional time needed for the new AstroTurf field and the relatively quick installation time needed for a FieldTurf surface led the DCAD to start the project later in the year.
Harper said that while some were upset teams would have to play on the older AstroTurf until the winter rather than the summer, the benefits of the revised plan outweighed the negatives.
"We took another look at it and said we could make it through one more field hockey season. The tradeoff was well-worth it," she said.
