Elmira College celebrates new field

ELMIRA, N.Y. ( WETM ) — Elmira College unveils its new turf field at Campus Field after being worked on over the summer and was completed a couple of weeks ago. The field was previously grass and student athletes reflected on how the new turf will provide a consistent playing field for sports and other activities.

Senior Rachel Bortnick of the Elmira College women’s soccer team said one of the advantages of playing on turf is that it’s a solid surface and is suitable for playing in the rain.

“Hopefully just expanding the amount of sports teams we have here and that can utilize the turf, that’ll be great,” said Bortnick.

Riley Spencer of the Elmira College men’s basketball team explained that the turf field is a good addition for intramural and college sports games and believes it can increase community engagement and attendance at games.

“It’s a cool thing that the college added. It was grass when I came in two years ago, I was a freshman,” said Spencer. “It’s been grass for the past two years, and I came in this fall, and they finished it up.”

Director of Athletics for Elmira College, Rhonda Faunce discussed how the turf will expand campus usage and host other events. She noted that most modern sports such as soccer and field hockey use turf because of its low maintenance.

“It’s going to help the entire campus community. We’ve already had some other events, non-athletic events out here. We’re doing a lot more intramural stuff, like flag football, we did a kickball tournament,” said Faunce. “And with the lights, it just opens up the space, which is directly on campus for everyone to use.”

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