Most students at Deerfield are unaware of the effort required to keep the Academy’s lawns and playing fields presentable and functional year round. This summer, the Academy’s contracted R.A.D. Sports, a New England sports facility construction company, to install a new turf field for both the lacrosse and field hockey teams over the summer. The Physical Plant, responsible for the maintenance of the school’s many fields and lawns, also encountered unexpectedly dry weather, which has led to the extensive use of sprinklers around campus.

The Academy uses synthetic turf for their field hockey fields for ease of maintenance. Traditional grass fields “require mowing, fertilization, and irrigation,” explained Athletic Grounds Supervisor Chip Williams. “With turf, it’s pretty self-sufficient.” The new turf is also covered with sand, which supplements the turf by providing structure and stability for each blade.

However, the new turf isn’t a perfect solution. The height of the grass on the playing field was “a compromise between lacrosse and field hockey,” explained Mr. Williams. The Physical Plant had to consider the technicalities of the two sports when choosing the turf height. Field hockey grass needs to be shorter so that the ball can roll freely without too much resistance, while grass for lacrosse is subject to less stringent requirements.

R.A.D. Sports began remodeling the turf field at the end of the previous school year and completed construction in slightly under two months. The construction, while mainly renovation focused, also improved the underlying structure of the fields. Mr. Williams mentioned that the company installed a new stone base for drainage, a layer of foam padding, and additional sand for stability.

While the Physical Plant was completing landscaping jobs over the summer, they encountered an unexpected challenge: the Valley experienced a notably dry summer. Typically, Western Massachusetts receives large amounts of rainfall over the summer months, and this deviation left many lawns and fields in an unhealthy state. To restore the grass, the Physical Plant turned on the irrigation system and has been periodically repositioning water sprinklers on the lawns. While this measure significantly improves the condition of the grass, the student body has struggled to change their lawn-crossing habits to account for the placement of these sprinklers. “While I know that the sprinklers are doing their job,” Annie Egleston ’27 said, “[we students] have to time them so that we don’t get sprayed in the middle of the class day.”