Brooke Holland, Reporter
@bhollandcourant
Here at NCHS, we are lucky enough to have access to many great sports facilities, like Dunning, the water tower turf, track, and many more. Because these areas are where many teen and youth athletes alike have practiced their skills over the years, they’re in need of renovation. The project to redo these facilities has been in the works for a couple years, and almost has the support it needs to take off. Although it may sound like an easy process, raising awareness and gaining support for these improvements requires a lot of work.
There are many reasons behind why now is the time to make changes to the facilities. Mike Murphy is in charge of the Ram’s Booster Club, one of the organizations organizing the renovations, and knows a lot about the causes that spark the need for change. “Well there’s two main reasons. One is that in general the athletic facilities at New Canaan High School right now are all at a stage where the last time that any significant money or renovations was put into them was 8 or 10 years ago,” he said. “The other part of it is that we have a large percentage of children at the youth level, and students in the high school that participate in athletics. The majority of those are field sports. One of the real needs we believe is not only to have artificial turf in Dunning Stadium, and at the water tower turf, but also to replace the grass fields in between the two and make them turf fields, so there’s more year round usage”.
Aside from the main technical reasons for redoing the facilities, there are other aspects that stuck out to those in charge of the project as to why the project needed to happen soon. Athletic Director Jay Egan knows a lot about the fields here, and can tell when they are no longer at their prime. “It’s time for us to start thinking about a new field because things happen which have to do with seams giving up, and the carpet becoming thinner. For overall playability, and consistent safety, we have to start thinking about it and talking about it,” he said.
Mr. Murphy is also aware of changes other then he fields that need addressing. “In addition to the turf, Dunning stadium itself has facilities that are outdated. What we would like to do is put in a new press box, which will allow us to take advantage of the new scoreboard, and all the attributes that that scoreboard has,” he said. “ Also, the HAN Network is now contracted with the FCIAC to streamline live events, and Dunning is the perfect facility to do that. We’ve upgraded the wiring capabilities from the high school to the press box, now we have to get the press box updated”.
The actual construction process necessary to make these changes is not extremely complex. “The fields are just like a big piece of shag carpet with trub rubber on top of it. So across the whole field, they vacuum out all the rubber, and then they cut and roll up the existing field,” he said. “Then when you look at it there’s just crushed stone underneath it. They level that stone back out again and put a new one down”.
Along with redoing the facilities will come countess benefits for not just the athletes, but the community as a whole. “The footing will be better, and the shock absorption will be better. What they talk about with those fields is the resiliency of the
surface when someone falls, there’s a shock called GMax, that’s the way they register it,” he said. “We’re looking to get more shock absorption, so basically safer and better player ability”.
The community will also benefit from these improvements. Mr. Murphy talked about how improvements to our facilities in the past have helped our town as a whole.“The generation that created and built Dunning Stadium, and then the generation that funded the water tower turf, those are 10 and 15 years ago. So those families to a great degree have come and gone and those kids have come and gone, and your generation has reaped the benefits of playing on those fields,” he said. “Now what we’re saying is it’s time for this generation to do the same thing for the next. A big part of it is educating the youth sports families about how that’s going to benefit their children. It’s not really a high school project.”
“Although you think of these facilities as for the high school, all the youth sports use them on the weekends and year round. So it’s really important that we need to convey to the youth sport families and the high school families that it’s beneficial for everyone,” he said.
Mr. Murphy believes the success of the football team is an example of what the facilities can do for a team. “Prior to Dunning being built, the football team was competitive, would have two or three years where they’d be really competitive and then they would have losing seasons. But for the most part in the last 15 years, I think the winning percentage is above 75%,” he said. “A lot of that has to do with the fact that you have got the facility, which not only attracts fans and creates an atmosphere of wanting
to play in that program, but, it also provides the ability to play year round,” he said. “So we think that not only upgrading Dunning, but also upgrading the water tower turf and creating another field and a half at that grass strip would create a facility on campus that would allow all the field sports to have more access and more time to play. We think that the effect that Dunning had on the football program, could go across the board to all sports.”
Mr. Egan believes improvements to these facilities will positively impact the school community. “Practicing and just being there on a new field will be a big uplift for everyone who uses the facility,” he said. “When you watch it it’ll be a new field, the colors will be more vivid and the lines will be better. When fields are new they look different, they look new.”
