New Raymond Field a jewel worth waiting for

Because I was on vacation, I missed the opening of the new Raymond Field last weekend at Acadi - that doesn’t mean I wasn’t aware of the hype surrounding it.

Yes, the final scores of the football games (40-12 for SMU over Acadia Saturday, 38-7 for Halifax West over Horton Sunday) probably left a bit to be desired for local fans, but that should have been the only downside.

Eric Cederberg of Acadia Varsity Athletics calls the new field “an incredible addition to our facilities here at Acadia, as well as for the entire local sports community.” He hopes the facility will be available to and well-used by a range of local teams - not just the Axemen varsity squads. I heartily agree.

Even though it took longer than planned to finish, I’m glad the crew installing the new artificial FieldTurf playing surface didn’t try and rush the job. That kind of thing invariably leads to a subpar job.

As it is, the Axemen only had to reschedule one home football game and a handful of soccer and rugby matches – which, now the field is virtually completed, should be quickly forgotten.

Given the new field – state-of-the-art in terms of an artificial playing surface – is likely to last at least 10 years with a minimum of maintenance, the slight delay of three weeks or so is a small price to pay.

Speaking of prices, it was a generous gesture for former Axemen head football coach John Huard to donate the FieldTurf, a product his company, based in Maine, manufactures and installs.

That the field was ready in time for Saturday’s game is also due in large part to the Axemen football and men’s soccer players, who pitched in and helped spread around the mixture of sand and recycled rubber holding the turf in place. According to Axemen assistant coach Josh Lambert, all the players whose schedules permitted them to do so worked before and after practice Wednesday and Thursday (until near midnight). Their reward was being able to practice on the new field Friday evening in preparation for their game the following afternoon.

I’ve always felt Acadia student-athletes are a pretty special group of people. The football team has raised more than $50,000 for Alzheimer research, just one example of the many things the students do in and for the local community.

Now, after the last few wrinkles have been ironed out (no pun intended), the field will stand not only as another gem in the Valley crown, but something all Acadia athletes, the university and the local community, can be proud of.