Story on the Swenson Athletic Football field

By: Steven M Miller, Jr

Posted: 3/6/08

While the Swenson football field will not get a makeover anytime soon, a plan is in the works for a brand new $9.5 to $10 million Swenson Field Athletic Complex. The field will come complete with a new synthetic football turf, bleachers, all-weather track, press-box, locker rooms and offices for the football team and coaches.

The construction will begin as soon as the approval comes for the new Marshall Conant science building from the state legislature and its plan has been stamped by the Board of Trustees.

"Right now the college has done a study for building a field for the football team, locker rooms for the home and visiting teams on an artificial surface, and a nine-lane track," said Keith Macdonald, Director of Facilities. "If funds are available a second artificial (surface) will be placed the field closest to Tinsley Drive."

Macdonald said that an all-encompassing study was devised and outlined find out the best plan for the future of the college and the direction that they want to go with the project. The study was done by the Facilities, Management and Planning, and Athletics in association with Geller Sport Inc. of Boston.

"The study was done to find out the cost effectiveness, so that we could pair it down with a proposed budget with the cost analysis," said Macdonald. "With this study you can color generate plans, develop a construction schedule (when funding becomes available) with other agencies that need to be involved, then the trustees can approve it and construction can begin.

The new football field will come with an artificial surface complete with rubber-sand as the surface. The field will become an expandable soccer and lacrosse field with the lines and corners painted out. Lines drawn for use of the football team will become permanent.

A new set of bleachers will be built from one 20-yard line to the other 20-yard line with a press box right behind them. Space will be created on the other end of the field where the moveable bleachers can be placed and new space can be built for expandable seating (on the visitors side) when the funding becomes available.

A ticket booth/restroom building will be placed at the entrance of the complex and a new building will be constructed where the green field house currently sits. The new building will be a single story building with a football office and meeting room, visiting and home locker rooms with a training room.

To make space for the complex, the first row of parking will be eliminated to make room for the bleachers, which will be shortened and raised higher off the ground. The high jump, long jump, triple jump, and pole vault pits will also be moved over. The home-side baseball bullpen will be shortened and made more efficient.

John Harper, the Director of Athletics and Recreation, noted that the college is one of the three schools that still use a grass football field.

"Of the 16 teams in the New England Football Conference, Bridgewater State, Salve Regina, and Plymouth State are the only teams that still use a grass field to play its games, he said."

Both Harper and Macdonald said that they wanted to try to maximize the use of the new football field as much as possible in the most feasible way.

"We wanted all varsity teams to use the field for their competitions and practices and then after hours make it possible for the intramural teams to use the field," said Macdonald.

While the college isn't building a field out of necessity because it has the room to continue to play its contests and practice on such space, other schools had no other choice but to construct a field. The plan right now is to sit and wait things out.

"We aren't like Fitchburg State where they had to place a field for practices and contests for the two soccer's, football, field hockey, etc, because they had no room for anything else," said Harper. "We are better off looking at things one year at a time. It's more important that we can get the new construction off and underway."

When the funding becomes available, Macdonald said that he wanted to make sure that things were done so that the team could start to play on it right at the beginning of the new season, not towards the end of it.

"We want to piece the timing together in appropriately," said Macdonald. "We would like the start date to ensure that they are playing on September 1, not May 1."

As soon as the new science building is approved for construction, the football team will lose its practice field behind the Kelly Gym to a parking lot and the space required for erection of the first-half of the structure.

The football team will use the green field house as a makeshift locker room, drying room, and training facility. The team will practice on the third Swenson field closest to the woods.

While the Swenson Field Athletic Complex is still a long way off, the Facilities and Athletics departments are investing in a couple of short-term building projects that are manageable and relatively inexpensive.

This past fall, Facilities built a better drainage system that was needed in the outfield of the baseball field. Harper also said that he wanted to "build cages underneath the softball and baseball bleachers" to protect the tractors and other assets that are used by the Facilities department during the year.

Once the project is approved, Macdonald said that work would begin on an irrigation system for the Swenson Athletic Fields. The first field that they would work on would be the field in the worst condition; the field closest to Tinsley Drive. The project would cost the college anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000.

"Right now this is something that is an immediate need for the field and it's something that we are trying to get approved now," said Macdonald. "If we get it now, it should be complete by the fall of 2009."

The plan is to regrade the field, then laser-grade it, and then fit it with the proper irrigation. At the same time, once the field is regraded, it would be reseeded, then they would force feed it, and it would be ready for use by labor-day. The well line by the baseball batting cages would also be expanded to the middle field.

Eventually every one of the three fields would undergo this process as the funding becomes available. The field in the middle would next in line, followed by the field closest to the woods because it's currently in the best condition. The expense is expected to be close to $25, 000 to $30,000 for each additional field worked on.

"It would allow us to rebuild the field with better drainage and with an irrigation well," said Harper. "With in-ground irrigation it would make things cost efficient and not as much time would be used fixing the fields. It would be playable quicker and water would be able to be used by both wells."

While the Swenson Field complex project is still a long way off, Harper said that he thinks that it may become a priority, based upon what the college wants done first.

"Right now it's the poorest and most noticeable facility that people drive by on a regular basis," said Harper. "But, of course, there are other groups that still need the money because there are so many needs on campus."