Legacy Fields officially open
About 50 individuals gathered Tuesday to attend the ribbon cutting of the new Aggie Legacy Fields. ASUSU President Christen Thrapp, USU President Stan Albrecht and former ASUSU President Erik Mikkelsen cut the ribbon at the east entrance of the fields. – katrimw@gmail.com
“Something great is happening at Utah State,” Thrapp said.
“These fields are buzzing,” said Kevin Kobe, campus recreation director.
Thrapp said students are constantly using and playing on the new turf fields. He said he walks by the fields on his way to campus and always seeing people participating in club sport practices, intramural games and open recreation, even late in the evening.
Kobe said the new fields would can be used well into October and early in the spring. The turf will better in play on in the rain and snow because it will not become muddy. The lighting on the fields make them accessible at night, he said.
“There’s more to school here than being in the classroom,” he said.
Campus Recreation’s mission is to provide high-quality facilities like the new turf fields and programs like the Big Blue Race Series and Fun, Fit, Forever, Kobe said.
“The Aggie Legacy Fields are the first in a series of great new facilities,” said James Morales, vice president of student services.
The Aggie Life and Wellness Center will be the second project of this campaign. It is awaiting approval by the state legislature said David Smith, the campus-recreation student chair.
“Hopefully in spring we can hire an architect,” he said.
Smith is helping create a student committee through ASUSU to make the policies and decisions regarding the new facilities.
“It will be driven by students to hear to students so we don’t lose what this was meant to be – a student space,” he said.
This student-led initiative was born three years ago in a conversation between former ASUSU
president Tyler Tolson and Morales, who had recently arrived at USU, Morales said.
Part of Tolson’s campaign platform was to expand opportunities for student recreation and
wellness. Morales and Tolson realized they shared the same vision of recreation facilities and
they discussed different ideas for outdoor and indoor recreation, Morales said.
“Recall the years past when the fields where the new Legacy Fields now are were dug up for a new water tank. Putting in new sod and sprinklers, as well as the upkeep of the fields would have been expensive,” Morales said.
“This turf will last eight years – two sets of students – before they need maintenance,” Kobe said.
Kobe told of the recent Ultimate Frisbee tournament held on the fields last weekend. USU
students were excited to play on such nice fields and the visitors were very impressed, Kobe said.
“Others around the state know about these fields, and they are excited for us to have them,” Thrapp said.
President Albrecht said he was coming back from the football game at Colorado State Saturday evening with one of USU’s donors. The donor asked what all the lights he could see on the ground were. There was something new in Logan, Albrecht told him. It was the Aggie Legacy Fields.
“We could see the lights from the Legacy Fields,” he said. “Everyone commented and looked at the excitement of students doing something late in the evenings. This is something that they haven’t been able to do before.”
President Albrecht said he looks forward to hear more people talk about the facility.
Thrapp said the fields are long overdue.
“This is something that this campus has needed for a while,” Thrapp said. “Students are out here all times of the day.”
The fields are overrun with intramurals, club sports and students recreating, Kobe said. There are currently 64 flag football teams, 32 soccer teams, and over a 1000 intramural students playing on the Aggie Legacy Fields. That doesn’t include the estimated 1000 students using the fields for open recreation, he said.
“We want even more play space. We’re looking for places and more opportunities,” Smith said.
Kobe said USU has had a desperate need for new facilities, especially outdoor playing fields.
Facilities like the fields provide outlets for students and lets them interact with each other. This builds the campus community, he said.
In Kobe’s speech before the ribbon cutting, he said the importance of fields was not just to
the players, but to the spectators as well. The fields were designed with places for spectators to sit and watch flag-football and other activities, he said.
“It’s fun to see that,” Kobe said. “It’s gratifying to come watch the intramurals going on and see how much fun students are having.”
Kobe said Campus Recreation is in the planning stages of other projects such as the Tower Soccer Fields. For now, they’re looking forward to moving forward with the Aggie Life and Wellness Center.
“The Aggie Life and Wellness Center is just another one of the projects,” Morales said. “We will have more things out here in other places on campus for students.”