FIELD OF DREAMS
New turf and track for Holy Names
The Holy Names Knights are no longer the vagabonds of local highschool football. Members of the senior Knights practised on their state-of-the-art turf field for the first time Tuesday. “Stepping onto it with cleats for the first time was incredible,” said senior quarterback Jake Heydon. Construction on the $1.8-million field and six-lane track began in May and completion means the senior Knights will play a true home game in the Windsor Essex County Secondary Schools Athletic Association league for the first time in approximately 10 years. Head coach Rob McIntyre has been at the school 19 years and can only remember playing one playoff game on the field out back. “It’s going to be real nice having a home game,” McIntyre said. “This field, of course, is far better than our old one.” The artificial turf field is the first for a school in the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board and the second for a WECSSAA school. Tecumseh Vista also has a turf field. Unsafe conditions at Holy Names’ natural grass field long ago forced the senior football team and the school soccer teams to rent fields at either Windsor Stadium or the University of Windsor.
The decaying track was all but unusable, forcing runners on the school team to train on neighbourhood roadways. Principal Pat Hickson remembers coaching at the school in the mid-90s and watching the pitch turn into a muddy quagmire every time it rained. “It didn’t drain. The one end of the field would be a lake,” Hickson said. “If you scored a touchdown, you had to go to the other end zone to kick the extra point.”
Heydon and teammate Nick Brajkovic both experienced the ankle twisting pot holes of the old field when they practised and played there as juniors.
“If the field was wet, I’d go to make a cut and slip and get all muddy,” said Brajkovic, a wide receiver. “You were worried about twisting an ankle all the time. Now stepping out there, I can’t believe I get to play on this turf for the next two years.” Heydon was in awe of all the amenities. “Looking at the scoreboard that says ‘Home of the Knights’ and the press box and the Knights’ name in the end zone, it was amazing,” Heydon said. “It’s going to be great for our rival games against Herman and Massey.”
The field also features top-of- the-line LED lighting designed to target specific playing areas. Some of the lighting is even aimed upwards for punts and kickoffs and all of it minimizes the throwback impact on nearby houses. Hickson described the track’s surface as “walking on a carpet with the most expensive under pad you can get.” He noted the entire student body will make good use of the new athletic facilities through extracurricular programs and physical education classes, not to mention the opportunity for community use.
“We’ve been looking for this for a long time,” Hickson said. “It’s so cool.”