By Construction was finished on a $5.4 million new turf field and lights at Carroll College’s newly rebranded Valley Bank Field at Nelson Stadium in early August after decades of planning and momentous support from alumni, donors, and the entire community.
Synthetic turf, which was donated by Valley Bank Field, is known to have both benefits and faults.
Carroll football and soccer athletes have mixed assessments of the massive project.
“I think the new field was a great investment for the school,” said Fighting Saints running back Max Lehman, a senior health science major from Boise. “It allows for athletes to be on it every day for practice no matter the weather conditions. It was definitely a step the school needed to take.”
Others still harbor some doubts about the changes.
Molly Molvig, a senior nursing major from Billings, just finished her final season playing women’s soccer in Nelson Stadium.
“It was nice being able to play on good turf year round and not putting up with the football team’s destruction of the field, but I do think there are other things we could have put the money towards, like housing maybe, or even a track facility,” Molvig said.
“The lights were a great addition as far as allowing us to have some really fun night games, but was the new turf worth that much money when it is known to increase ACL injuries in athletes?” asked Jack England, a senior health science major from Meridian, Idaho, who also just closed out his football career as a Saint. “I’m not too sure.”
