Chloe Lucci ‘19: The beginning of soccer season began mid-March and the Romeo Soccer teams are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play on the new turf at Barnabo as a home field. In previous years, the home soccer games took place at Memorial field, a grass field.

The Memorial field is known for extreme mud and dirt, excessive bumps, and just an overall uneven playing field, allowing for much more difficult play. When the teams found out about the new turf field, they flooded with excitement.

Because of the excitement, no one thought about the disadvantages of turf fields.

Although the turf field is smooth and fast, it makes player more prone to injuries, like ACL tears and brutal turf burns according to

“If I had the option between turf and well taken care of grass, I would pick grass because it’s easier to play on and I don’t have to worry about getting injured as much,” Kyle Knepper ‘19 said.

Controlling the ball is much more difficult to do on turf with the short and slippery “grass”. Also   there is nothing worse than getting pushed down or fouled, ending up with scrapes all up and down your legs.

Turf is very susceptible to hot temperatures, on a hot day turf can heat up to 117 degrees Fahrenheit, while real grass can heat to only 98 degrees Fahrenheit. With the lower temperature, playing soccer is much more comfortable and less dehydrating due to less sweat.

However, many people say that turf is the more reasonable option of the two because it does not need as much maintenance.

“Turf is the better choice because there is less maintenance and its is easier to play on,” Julienne Ciacico ‘18 said.

Despite the fact that turf is less maintenance, it is more expensive. A turf field lasts for about ten years and cost around 1 million dollars on average to install, where as a grass field costs 5,000 dollars each year for maintenance, 50,000 dollars for 10 years. That’s roughly a 950,000 dollar difference.

When deciding between a turf field and a grass field, the most and cheapest benefits lies in grass fields.


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