Fieldhouse no longer accommodates indoor soccer
Due to a recent soccer-related injury in the Nelson Fieldhouse, the sport is currently not allowed inside the building. The rule was mandated after a jogger was struck by a ball while on the track.
“We were playing and somebody shot the ball and hit an older man jogging on the track.” said Bereket Tesfatsion, a graduate student in water resource management. “Immediately they decided that we could not play.”
Tesfatsion said he feels the reaction was harsh, because his group of friends have been playing soccer in the Fieldhouse for the past year and have never had an accident or injury prior to this incident.
“Soccer has just boomed on this campus, the problem we’re running into is space,” said Scott Wamsley, assistant director of Campus Recreation. He also said the protective nets that hang in the Fieldhouse are not adequate to prevent future accidents.
“Those nets are probably 25 years old, they’re not made to stop a soccer ball, they’re made to stop a tennis ball,” Wamsley said.
He said similar safety concerns arose several years ago when the women’s softball team practiced there.
Wamsley said he has been talking with a net company in Salt Lake City, and Campus Recreation hopes to get new nets sometime in the near future.
“We struggle in the winter to find a place to play,” said Trey Leonard, captain of the USU men’s soccer club.
“We were playing in the Fieldhouse three to four times a week until we got kicked out,” he said.
His friends had been playing there for more than two months without complaint, he said.
“It’s just frustrating,” he said, “soccer always seems to get the shaft.”
David Castillo, a sophomore studying business, said as soccer players, it is a normal thing to be pushed aside to make room for more popular sports.
International studies major and soccer player Chris Ellsworth said, “That’s just the brutal reality in America, people aren’t very accommodating to soccer.”
Time has been allocated for soccer players in Gym 201 in the HPER building, from 5-8 p.m. on Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Wamsley said players who use the facility must play with a “Futsal” ball, which is less dangerous. These can be borrowed from the front desk in the HPER.
Wamsley said he asks for students to bear with the situation until the weather improves.
“We’re trying to keep time open for soccer,” he said. “What we need is an additional facility.”
According to the USU Campus Recreation website, there has been an initiative to build a new student recreation facility. Wamsley said he would like to see a multiple activity center (MAC) housed in such a facility to accommodate sports like indoor soccer.
– keaton.reed@aggiemail.usu.edu