CLADWELL, Idaho — Athletes at the College of Idaho have some new stomping grounds as the school's football, baseball, and softball fields have all been replaced with new turf fields. The new fields feature the school's bright purple colors on the turf and are replacing fields that were over 10 years old.
- The project to upgrade all three fields cost just over a million dollars and was funded by a mixture of grants, fund-raising, and help from the City of Caldwell.
- Student-athletes will get the opportunity to break in the new fields this fall.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"It is not a common color for turf," says Reagan Rossi, the Vice President of Athletics at the College of Idaho. "With this purple, I think there will be no confusion of who we are."
She tells me the old turf fields for the baseball and football teams were over 10 years old and needed upgrades, and the softball team had a dirt field that needed attention.
"For us on the football team I know that we've been wanting the new field for a little bit now our old turf was a little… it was tough you know sometimes you'd go hit your head on the turf and it was like dang I swear I just landed on concrete," says Andy Peters, who plays Quarterback and welcomes the change.
"Just looking down at his turf and looking at what they've done so far, I think this is going to be one of the most prime places to play in all the frontier conference," added Peters.
"There's a lot more issues with a dirt field than there is with turf," says Lolo Walker, who plays on the college softball team.
She tells me dirt fields, like the one they had before this upgrade, often left large holes behind... where the players drag their feet... and are easily flooded by rain.
The new turf solves both problems.
"Having turf is gonna be amazing. I absolutely love the field. It looks amazing," says Walker.
"As you can look behind me, see the purple the green it really does make the world of difference, it shows that not only are we invested in this program but also the school and the people the admin, everyone behind the scenes that are working to do this kind of thing not only for us but for the softball team and the football team, it really just goes to show that they are totally bought in on us as well regardless of result," says Oliver Massie, a pitcher on the baseball team.
The project to upgrade all three fields cost just over a million dollars and was funded by a mixture of grants, fund-raising, and help from the City of Caldwell.
"Anything you do, you don't do it solo. And so Mayor Wagner and our city council have been extremely supportive in our efforts here, and anytime we can work together on things its always good for Caldwell and always good for the college," says Rossi.