Oregon State Soccer Getting New Playing Surface
April 11, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Paul Lorenz Field at Patrick Wayne Stadium will have a new look and feel come the 2012 Oregon State men’s and women’s soccer seasons due to the resurfacing project going on this spring and summer.
“The new surface is certainly a step in the right direction,” head men’s soccer coach Steve Simmons said. “It really shows the support of our administration to continue to improve our sport for both the men’s and women’s programs. We are excited.”
The old natural grass surface will be removed, along with some trees along the east side of the field and the field will be regraded and laser leveled by L&H Grading, Inc. The name Paul Lorenz field came from the former owner of L&H Grading in Salem, which helped with the original building of the field in 1996 and the renovations in 1997.
“I think this is the first resurfacing since its inception,” Simmons said. “And to be fair, the old field did a pretty good job for a number of years. When you consider a competition surface, it is usually a five to six year recycle."
New Hunter irrigations heads and cement mow strip will be added to the field and a new variety of spreading rye grass from Seed Research will be used to reseed the surface along with Anderson’s Fertilizer. The surface was originally a sand-based field with underground drainage and irrigation.
The new rye grass from Seed Research is the same grass and turf that was used at the 2010 Men’s World Cup in South Africa.
“We are really excited about the new field; we have been working on it for a long time and trying to get the right connections,” head women’s soccer coach Linus Rhode said. “In the fall we will have a fantastic natural grass playing surface game field.”
With the combination of L&H Grading, Inc., in particular president James Beck, OSU Athletic Facility Managers Jess Lewis and Jeff Roy, the coaches and the Oregon State Athletics administration, this project has come to life. Another large part of the project has been brought a long by the Oregon State Department of Horticulture.
“We are excited to be part of the project,” Brian McDonald, an OSU Turfgrass research assistant, said. “It will be a great opportunity for the OSU Turfgrass students to take part in the seeding and grow-in of the soccer field. It has been great working with Jess Lewis and Jeff Roy because they have done a marvelous job organizing the project.”
Both the men’s and women’s programs will use the Oregon State intermural fields for their spring games during the field resurfacing. The field will be closed to allow for growth and establishment of the new grass until August.
The teams will be using the new natural grass field and the new artificial turf field being built in the in-field of the new track complex for practices this spring. The women’s soccer team opens the 2012-2013 season at home on August 17 against University of Alabama-Birmingham and the men open their home season against Sacramento State on August 24.
“The team is really excited,” Rhode said. “The first thing they asked was ‘what happened to our field?’ Once I explained it to them they got really excited. They love our home field and now the fact that we are going to make it even better, they are just really excited to get out there and play.”
Patrick Wayne Valley Stadium seats 1,500 fans and has an enclosed press box on the west sideline. It is named for the late Patrick Wayne Valley who is a former Oregon State football letterman and 1964 Rose Bowl team member.
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