OCEAN CITY — City officials and high school athletes cut the ribbon on the new artificial turf playing field at the Tennessee Avenue sports complex Friday afternoon, improving the venue for Red Raider teams such as girls lacrosse that have made that field their home and opening it up for other teams including the Nor’Easters, the resort’s professional soccer team.
Over the past few decades, the city has improved the Tennessee Avenue sports complex, going from one field that served Ocean City High School sports before doubling that with a second, better adjacent field. But both grass fields have long been plagued by the weather, with drainage problems contributing to making them unusable at times because of standing water and mud.
The ribbon-cutting on the roughly $1.5 million project takes things to a new level, giving the resort two artificial turf fields, including the one at Carey Stadium. The money spent includes extensive drainage work, meaning the field will be accessible for practice and games with little impact by inclement weather and eliminates the need for regular re-sodding.
“The way they have this leveled out and the substructure — that’s where the money is, to make sure it drains right,” Mayor Jay Gillian said right after the ribbon-cutting.
“It’s going to be fantastic,” according to Jackie Adams, a former Red Raider athlete who now is coach of the OCHS girls JV soccer team. “The last couple of seasons we’ve had some pretty wet falls. Where we were unable to use the field for two or three weeks at a time during our season. To be able to have this is kind of nice, keeping us coaches calm knowing we have the space where we can play and we don’t have to freak out and run to find a little patch of grass to play on.
“This is going to be a big help, for sure,” Adams added.
Gillian said although he has been mayor for 14 years, he loved his time before that on the school board being around students.
“You learn what they need,” he said. “When you think of everything we do for families and kids, this is just the cherry on the cake. It’s beautiful and the kids are excited. I love seeing the smiles. It really is amazing.”
Along with providing a better surface for the OCHS teams, Gillian said the Nor’easters, which normally play at Carey Stadium, are going to be able to play on the Tennessee Avenue field.
“The Nor’easters are one of those soccer gems,” he said.
The mayor noted the field is underlaid with cork, rather than rubber, because they believe it is healthier.
“Dan Kelchner and our Community Services team and our recreation team, you know we have the best,” Gillian said. “And it really takes the pressure off Fifth Street (Carey Stadium) too because everybody wanted (that field). That was one of the biggest reasons we tried to do this down here.”
He noted there won’t be football on the field. Gillian said he expected it to be used mostly by lacrosse, soccer and field hockey.
“Absolutely outstanding,” Ocean City Board of Education President Kevin Barnes said. “It’s a great blend of technology and safety measures are built in. I love it. And we’re not going to see the downtime with rainstorms and flooding and whatnot. These kids can pretty much rely on the field being ready to play on whereas before there were times the kids couldn’t play on the field for days or weeks on end because of the flooding.”
OCHS girls lacrosse coach Lesley Graham noted her team has loved playing at Tennessee Avenue, but getting the artificial turf provides multiple added benefits.
“The new turfed field at Tennessee Avenue is an incredible addition to the facilities the school and city provide for our high school athletics program,” she said. “Moving the girls lacrosse program to the Tennessee Avenue complex five years ago came with challenges, but having a beautiful new surface to play on helps provide even more gratitude and pride in our program.”
Graham added the surface supports athletes who want to continue their careers in college.
“Having a new turf playing surface will also help prepare our players for the next level as a large number of collegiate programs play on an artificial surface,” she said. “This season we have six seniors committed to play at the next level, four of them Division 1.”
She noted over the years the Red Raiders lacrosse program has had multiple girls go on to play in college from club level to Divisions 1, 2 and 3.
“This new facility,” Graham said, “helps to outwardly represent the growth of the game and the development and passion they have for the sport of lacrosse.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
