When Hopkins' fall athletes showed up on campus to begin their preseason training in mid-August, this year's crop of freshmen weren't the only new thing on Homewood Field.
On May 31, just one day after the men's lacrosse team won the NCAA Championship, construction began on Homewood's weathered playing surface, replacing the anachronistic AstroTurf with a state-of-the-art Sportexe Momentum 51 surface.
The AstroTurf surface was first installed at Homewood Field 25 years ago and was due for its third resurfacing. An adjacent practice field was also resurfaced with the Sportexe turf.
"When teams want a new surface these days, they just go straight to the Sportexe," said associate athletic director Ernie Larossa.
Thus, when the men's lacrosse team takes the field in March in an attempt to continue their 36-game home winning streak, they'll be doing it on a surface that is 70 percent ground rubber and 30 percent kiln-dried sand.
While the synthetic material was installed to maximize the quality of play and reduce the number of injuries suffered by Hopkins athletes, the size of the new field will also provides the men and women's soccer teams with an opportunity that they have long been denied.
"We have two very successful soccer teams at this school, but they have never been able to host an NCAA playoff game," said Larossa. The teams were unable to hold playoff games because the old field just barely met the NCAA minimum requirement for width.
"The soccer team really likes it because it feels a lot more like real grass," said head athletic director Tom Calder.
Plans for the new surface were set into motion last year around Thanksgiving, when athletic department administrators and coaches began looking at various playing surfaces and determining what was best for the school.
The Hopkins representatives were impressed by the Sportexe Momentum 51 surface at M & T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens. The Raven's turf ranked sixth out of 31 fields in an NFL Players Association poll, conducted in 2004.
"Our men's lacrosse team played at M & T Bank Stadium when they hosted the 2004 NCAA playoffs, and we have a good relationship with the Ravens' front office," Larossa said.
Though the facelift the two fields received was expensive, costing Hopkins a total of $1.9 million, the difference in the quality of play may be more dramatic than one would think. So far this fall, the football, field hockey, and men's and women's soccer teams have shared a combined record of 7-0 on Homewood Field's new surface.
Two teams that haven't been basking in the glory of the school's costly endeavor are the cross country and track and field squads.
Homewood Field's track was demolished during the resurfacing, and no definite plans for a replacement have been made. Larossa said that the process of putting in new turf would have destroyed the track anyway, and that once the field was expanded, there was no room left for a track.
"Not having a track is going to hurt the team, there's no doubt about that," said senior Gabe Tonkin, who is a member of the cross country and track and field teams. "For cross country, we've been able to do our workouts in nearby parks. But not having a track is going to become really inconvenient in a few months when track season begins."
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