Rec Sports looks to fix uneven Woodlawn field

Senior and co-captain of the IU women’s club soccer team Rebecca Davis has concerns about the condition of the field available to her team for weekly practices.

“It’s hard and it’s dry, and half the time there’s no grass,” Davis said. “It’s not flat, you just can’t even control the ball and you can’t get a good touch, so basically you can’t get any worthwhile practicing.”

More than 40 club sport teams exist through Campus Recreational Sports, and many use Woodlawn Field to practice.

The field, next to the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, is one of two available to club sports members for practice and is frequently criticized by those who use it.

The field is associated with HPER and, up until three years ago, was managed exclusively through the HPER’s dean’s office. Now, the responsibility for daily facility operations belongs to Recreational Sports.

Kathryn Bayless, director of Rec Sports, oversees the care of the field.

“We do facility inspections, work with the campus units to make sure that it’s being mowed, that it’s being seeded, that it’s being fertilized, that it’s being aerated and that it’s being maintained,” Bayless said.

The field is used for three primary activities: club sports, self-directed participation and informal sports such as pick-up frisbee, soccer or running around the track.

IU Men’s Rugby Club president Evan Kaufman said the Woodlawn field ranks far behind many of the other fields on campus because of the poor playing surface.

“There are many potholes, and the ground is uneven,” Kaufman said in an e-mail. “Comparing this to other fields on campus — whether that be public, club sports or varsity — it is unacceptable for student use.”

One of the biggest concerns of students who use the fields is the risk of injury caused by the poor playing surface.

“I and many of the other rugby players have rolled ankles on the field,” Kaufman said. “We actually moved touch-rugby away from this field because of the injury risk.”

But Bayless said Rec Sports is serious about risk management.

“When we have to, we close the field off for use because it has the conditions that we’re not able to correct,” she said. “So we close it off until that action can be undertaken.”

Bayless said Rec Sports realizes the field requires much more maintenance.

“We are concerned that it is not frequent enough, but there’s no funding source and there’s no commitment that the staffing will be available to be able to take on additional work,” Bayless said.

The office is in the process of recruiting extra help to keep the fields up to standards, Bayless said.

“One of the things that we’re exploring is to work through the University to put out a bid for an outside vendor to come on board to provide a regular scheduled maintenance regiment for the Woodlawn field,” Bayless said.