For the 2025-26 spring sports season, Conestoga will officially open all of the sports facilities included in its more than $28.7 million Athletic Fields Project.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony occurred on Sept. 24 for the opening of the first turf field, which has since hosted several practices and games. The rest of the facilities are still at varying stages of construction, and all are expected to open in the coming months prior to the start of the spring sports season.
The completed project will include two new turf fields, one grass field, one softball field and batting cage, five tennis courts, and an athletic field house that will include locker rooms and training facilities. Although not part of the original project, a newly-resurfaced track will also open.
“It’s going to be a really great luxury for our kids to be able to walk out of school, walk out the door, just be at the field and play,” athletic director Kevin Pechin said. “In prior years, we’ve had to rent facilities. Now we’re on site, we’re on turf, we have the best surface available. Everything (will be) a one-stop shop.”
The project’s planning process began in 2020, after the district conducted studies on comparably-sized schools’ athletic facilities and solicited feedback from Conestoga’s student athletes. From its research, the school board determined a sports facilities update was necessary and received preliminary approval for the project in 2021. Members then worked with the athletic department and district-hired architectural firm to acquire land, get township permits and complete other logistics before officially beginning construction in April 2024. According to Pechin, the school originally expected to complete the project in time for the fall 2025 sports season, but the timeline for opening was pushed back due to delays.
“There’s always delays when you have that many contractors on a site that are all contingent upon each other’s trades getting done on time,” Pechin said. “We’re fortunate enough that we’re finally up to speed, but that was sort of a challenge because it wasn’t just one company (but) a lot of different companies trying to piece together this whole project so it becomes one solid puzzle.”
Following the first field’s opening in September, the field hockey, soccer and football teams have held practices and games on the new turf. While the varsity teams’ games continue to take place on Teamer Field, junior varsity and freshmen teams have hosted games on the new field.
However, the athletic department has still scheduled various fall sports teams’ practices to take place on existing older fields or off campus. Junior and varsity football captain Brian Ford feels the new field is a welcomed upgrade to the current facilities and hopes to use it more often.
“We’ve been practicing on the grass field near the student parking lot (and) it’s getting kind of old because the grass is never really grown and there are a lot of dirt patches, so that can get annoying,” Ford said. “I wish we were able to practice more on the turf field that they just made and we’re not always able to do that, (but) I think it’s really cool and I’m glad that we finally are able to start using some of them.”
In addition to the fall sports teams, the marching band will move its practices, which are currently held in the student parking lot, to one of the new turf fields next year. In the spring, all of the fields will be accessible to athletes, and teams will continue to practice and play non-varsity games on them. Additionally, the school will be able to host meets and practices on the resurfaced track, as well as on-site practices and games for the tennis teams.
“I’m really excited about the new tennis courts. I think that they’ll be really helpful in the sense that we’ll get to start practice earlier and it’ll just be easier for games overall,” said freshman Vivienne Eagleson, a member of the junior varsity girls tennis team. “Right now, varsity and JV play their games at the YMCA, but in the future, varsity will just play at the school and JV will play at the (YMCA).”
According to Pechin, the completed project will also make scheduling practices and games significantly easier for the athletic department. Currently, the school transports many athletes, trainers and equipment offsite, but in the spring, there will be immediate access to on-campus facilities.
“It was scary in the beginning, when this whole thing started, because it was a really, really big (project),” Pechin said. “What’s been the most rewarding is seeing it come to fruition. Seeing it go from all those trees and everything to the actual designing, the implementation, the putting down the turf. It’s been really impressive to see what it’s become. And knowing that our kids are going to have one of the best athletic facilities in District 1, if not the state, makes me feel very proud.”
Vanessa Chen can be reached at [email protected].
Aanya Gandi can be reached at [email protected].
Ella Peng can be reached at [email protected].
