The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Turf is a necessary evil for HS soccer
Megan Rapinoe was livid, and she had every right to be. The star midfielder and fellow United States women’s national soccer team members were incredulous when it was revealed the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada would be played on turf and not grass. Rapinoe used a word at one point to describe the situation that I can’t repeat in this space, but let’s just say the word fit.
Professional players should reasonably expect to step on immaculate grass surfaces.
Unfortunately, the use of turf, when you get down to the high school level, is a necessary evil that cannot be avoided.
Rapinoe and her teammates were absolutely right to fight the good fight with wanting a World Cup to be played on grass. It was absurd not to be.
And everything stated about turf’s negatives is spot on: The concerns about back, knee and joint pain from playing on the surface. The way certain types of turf can impact the way a match is played.
But at this level, it’s not going anywhere. Quite the contrary.
Of the 58 high school boys and girls soccer sides in The News-Herald coverage area, 42 play primarily on turf for home matches. That’s a dramatic increase even in the last 5-10 years.
Many of the exceptions — Cornerstone Christian (playing at Christian Life Church), Kirtland, Madison and University — have soccer-specific fields and facilities.
My wife has a phrase for unrealistic expectations called “fuzzy puppy land.”
In fuzzy puppy land, soccer would never be played on anything other than grass.
But there’s also not a dedicated turf management staff at every high school like a professional soccer club. There aren’t crews studying every blade of grass and laying out
tarps for the threat of rain.
Districts only have so much money to go around, and taxpayers wouldn’t look too kindly on springing for under-soil heating and drying components.
With all due respect to the well-meaning, hardworking maintenance people who would perform this task way back when, bringing out someone with a roller and grass seed was applying a band aid to a gaping wound.
Turf allows for soccer to be played regardless of condition and ensures, no pun intended, a level playing field.
Yes, it requires differing judgment from pitch to pitch on how to gauge service and bounces. And you probably will feel it afterward. But it’s better to have
a fair shot at a competitive match than no shot.
Oh, the tales of bad grass pitches from over the years ...
In 2003, the Hawken boys played a Division III state semifinal at something called the Ashland Soccer Complex. The best thing I can say about the Ashland Soccer Complex in 2003 was the name was accurate. Other than that, it was a farce that a state final four match — with one of the great sides in area boys soccer history – was being contested on a pitch with an obvious hump.
I remember years ago at North, a sustained period of rain for a week had battered the field so badly there were sustained muddy indentations along the sidelines. You couldn’t
even consider wide play because there was basically a castle moat on either side.
There was a season when Chagrin Falls and West Geauga were deciding the girls CVC Chagrin Division title race, and it came down to the final match day head-to-head. West G’s Howell Field was beaten up so badly it was deemed unplayable. So the match was moved across the street to the West Geauga Commons. Don’t get me wrong: The field was great. But it felt weird having a high school conference title race being decided on a rec field.
And as the urban legend goes, part of the reason the Northeast District Athletic Board began to mandate turf for district finals was because of a disastrous district semifinal the year prior. A match was clearly decided not by team quality, but by how awful the grass field was.
It’s easier to maintain. It’s easier to guarantee a match will be played.
It’s not going to stop people from yelling at center officials thinking all bits of contact are a red card. But no one will ever complain about the playing surface, or it deciding a match on its own.
Even after winning the
2015 World Cup, Rapinoe wrote in a mailbag for the Players Tribune, “And look, I get it … We don’t have the ability to play on natural grass fields all the time. Sometimes it’s not logistically or financially possible. But at the international level, to hold a major money-making global spectacle and to have to play on turf is ridiculous, in my opinion.
“To add extra wear and tear because of the turf isn’t fair. I definitely felt it on my lower back and my ankles in particular.”
If a world-class player such as Rapinoe is feeling a turf match in her back and ankles, there’s a pretty good chance high school soccer players across our area face the same scenario in their pursuit.
And yes, there is a massive irony in the quest for every high school soccer player in Ohio playing on turf field after turf field aspiring to play a state final ... on the grass at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus.
But it’s not going to change. Because it can’t, no matter how livid it may make you.