BETTER FOOTING FOR RUSH
Team getting new playing surface
If you’re the Saskatchewan Rush, home-field advantage includes picking your way gingerly down an ancient, well-worn carpet.
When the 2017-18 season rolls around, they’ll have a new place to lay their heads, their elbows, their knees.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard the term turf-monsters — it’s when the turf gets older, and starts rising here and there,” Rush defender Ryan Dilks said Thursday after the team announced plans to put a new playing surface in place.
“That’s why you see players running with our knees towards our chests sometimes. The new turf will be brand-spanking new — flat, easy to run on, soft. It’ll be such a good feeling.”
The Rush called a news conference Thursday to announce the new turf will be called Co- Op Field at SaskTel Centre, as part of the biggest corporate deal in franchise history.
The old carpet was used for 12 seasons in both Edmonton and Saskatoon, rolled and unrolled, picked up by forklifts. Sponsor logos were applied, removed, applied.
The Rush won a championship on that carpet in Saskatoon, and they also watched strange ball-bounces and various pratfalls.
“There was a safety issue; a quality issue,” said Rush owner Bruce Urban.
“The reality is, a field like that is over $300,000, and you say, ‘Geez; maybe we can make it work a little bit longer.’ ”
That “little bit longer” finally hit its wall.
“We probably had one of the worst carpets in the league, truthfully,” Urban added.
“I’d like to tell you that there’s another team that had a lesser field, but based on listening to the players and going to some of the other buildings ... our field was kind of the grandfather of lacrosse fields.”
Dilks, who recently signed a three-year contract extension, noted there was “a lot of good times, and also a lot of bad times,” on that old carpet.
As its useful life came to a close, the Georgia Swarm pranced and capered on its battered surface after a 15-14 overtime win on June 10. That victory gave the Swarm a two-game sweep in their NLL championship series with the Rush, and set up a summer of bad memories for the hosts.
“Seeing another team lifting it in our building stung a little bit,” Dilks said.
“It stays in the back of your mind. You wish the season started the weekend after so you could get back at it.”
The wait has shortened considerably, given that the upcoming season starts earlier than usual.
The Rush open their regular season Dec. 23 against New England — a few weeks earlier than last season, when they commenced on Jan. 7.
They’ll also play a pre-season game Nov. 18 against the Swarm in a rematch of the league final.