Soccer at HRS - Printable Version

Soccer at HRS - Printable Version

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Soccer at HRS - Tiki Owl - 09-13-2013 09:58 AM

Would it be feasible to have a women's soccer game following a day football game? I know the field dimensions would be altered especially the width, but it might be a way to get soccer some attention for folks that don't normally go to the games.

September 13, 2008

RE: Soccer at HRS - amber34 - 09-13-2013 12:37 PM

The surface would be another hurdle. You can play soccer on field turf (and several MLS teams do), but I think it's fair to say that most players and coaches see it as a pretty big negative (because of the impact on how the ball bounces and rolls, and injuries). I can only think of one opponent (granted, 10 years ago now, sigh) that had field turf--Nevada, because of the snow in Reno by the end of soccer season.

The grass at the track/soccer stadium is really nice, honestly probably the envy of 80% of the teams we play.

RE: Soccer at HRS - Hambone10 - 09-13-2013 12:56 PM

Amber... you would know much better than almost anyone else... but assuming a quality grass surface and accepting that the field would be slightly narrower, would playing games in HRS be an asset to soccer?

I love the look and durability of field turf. I hate the surface. I'd love for our soccer games to be held in HRS, mostly because it is so much nicer than the old track stadium and we could make HRS so much better by concentrating our resources. We'd need to keep the grass field for practice, and likely have to build another one by the stadium so that we wouldn't have to use the stadium field as much, but I'd really prefer that if we could go to grass. The technology for grass has improved SO MUCH compared to what it was when we decided to go to turf.

I wonder if anyone has come up with some quality marking chalk or whatever that could be quickly and easily washed in when we wanted it to be so that we could avoid the unsightly multiple lines though.

RE: Soccer at HRS - exowlswimmer - 09-13-2013 01:07 PM

(09-13-2013 12:56 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: I love the look and durability of field turf. I hate the surface. I'd love for our soccer games to be held in HRS, mostly because it is so much nicer than the old track stadium and we could make HRS so much better by concentrating our resources. We'd need to keep the grass field for practice, and likely have to build another one by the stadium so that we wouldn't have to use the stadium field as much, but I'd really prefer that if we could go to grass. The technology for grass has improved SO MUCH compared to what it was when we decided to go to turf.

I wonder if anyone has come up with some quality marking chalk or whatever that could be quickly and easily washed in when we wanted it to be so that we could avoid the unsightly multiple lines though.

HRS has hosted soccer before. Link to the Rice Soccer team (the Lads) and a photo of one of the 70s players on the field at HRS, with a pretty good crowd in the background. Look under alumni
#9 Tasso Triantaphyllis
College: Wiess College
Major: BS/MS Chem Engin
Graduation Date: 1976
Main Position: Various
Company:

http://www.ricelads.org/LADS.php

This is where the new AD can really make a difference. He is also in charge of the Health and Wellness center and the intramural and club sports. A bit of help for these teams that wear the blue and grey is warranted. The Lads need to update their website, but their league site indicates they play UH here at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Will the athletic department let them play at the Soccer stadium or will they be relegated to the intramural fields?

RE: Soccer at HRS - RiceLad15 - 09-13-2013 01:25 PM

(09-13-2013 01:07 PM)exowlswimmer Wrote: HRS has hosted soccer before. Link to the Rice Soccer team (the Lads) and a photo of one of the 70s players on the field at HRS, with a pretty good crowd in the background. Look under alumni
#9 Tasso Triantaphyllis
College: Wiess College
Major: BS/MS Chem Engin
Graduation Date: 1976
Main Position: Various
Company:

http://www.ricelads.org/LADS.php

Nice link

RE: Soccer at HRS - RiceLad15 - 09-13-2013 01:28 PM

(09-13-2013 12:56 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: Amber... you would know much better than almost anyone else... but assuming a quality grass surface and accepting that the field would be slightly narrower, would playing games in HRS be an asset to soccer?

I love the look and durability of field turf. I hate the surface. I'd love for our soccer games to be held in HRS, mostly because it is so much nicer than the old track stadium and we could make HRS so much better by concentrating our resources. We'd need to keep the grass field for practice, and likely have to build another one by the stadium so that we wouldn't have to use the stadium field as much, but I'd really prefer that if we could go to grass. The technology for grass has improved SO MUCH compared to what it was when we decided to go to turf.

I wonder if anyone has come up with some quality marking chalk or whatever that could be quickly and easily washed in when we wanted it to be so that we could avoid the unsightly multiple lines though.

From my experience playing on quality turf fields in high school 6 years ago, no one really liked to because the ball played so much differently and it was not nearly as forgiving when going to the ground.

I think moving to HRS would be a great move for the soccer team, but you would have to put in real grass that was lined to a traditional soccer field size. I do wonder if there are any D-1 programs that split the football/soccer facilities.

RE: Soccer at HRS - Hambone10 - 09-13-2013 01:46 PM

(09-13-2013 01:28 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote: From my experience playing on quality turf fields in high school 6 years ago, no one really liked to because the ball played so much differently and it was not nearly as forgiving when going to the ground.

I think moving to HRS would be a great move for the soccer team, but you would have to put in real grass that was lined to a traditional soccer field size. I do wonder if there are any D-1 programs that split the football/soccer facilities.

I agree with point one. Hate the stuff for soccer

Point two is my impression as well, but I wondered how "the Rice Women's Soccer Team" feel about it. They may be attached to their 1920's bungalow.

Point three is an issue. Without taking out the first 5 rows or so, I think we would HAVE to be 5-10 yards narrower than the pro-forma, which matters but could actually work to our advantage... AND I wouldn't do it unless there were some way to create disappearing lines (an as yet unknown bio-degradable/disappearing product that held up for 12 hours after a rain? so that we didn't have one of those albatross fields)... get the science department on that. You could permanently paint the center logo and the conference tags, sidelines and a few shared lines.... but we don't want to diminish either experience by a shared facility.

RE: Soccer at HRS - georgewebb - 09-13-2013 01:47 PM

(09-13-2013 01:28 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote: I think moving to HRS would be a great move for the soccer team, but you would have to put in real grass

Playing on grass would be a great move for football, too!

RE: Soccer at HRS - I45owl - 09-13-2013 02:06 PM

(09-13-2013 12:37 PM)amber34 Wrote: The surface would be another hurdle. You can play soccer on field turf (and several MLS teams do), but I think it's fair to say that most players and coaches see it as a pretty big negative (because of the impact on how the ball bounces and rolls, and injuries). I can only think of one opponent (granted, 10 years ago now, sigh) that had field turf--Nevada, because of the snow in Reno by the end of soccer season.

The grass at the track/soccer stadium is really nice, honestly probably the envy of 80% of the teams we play.

My guess would be that most, if not all, of the players at least have experience on field turf, even if only indoors. As for width, at the risk of being sexist, but I don't feel like the women's game really uses width in the same way that the men do, so I'm not sure that much would be lost there. From what I recall of seeing Nicky Adams's team play, it may even be an advantage for Rice.

RE: Soccer at HRS - mbrindley - 09-13-2013 02:09 PM

(09-13-2013 01:46 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:
(09-13-2013 01:28 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote: From my experience playing on quality turf fields in high school 6 years ago, no one really liked to because the ball played so much differently and it was not nearly as forgiving when going to the ground.

I think moving to HRS would be a great move for the soccer team, but you would have to put in real grass that was lined to a traditional soccer field size. I do wonder if there are any D-1 programs that split the football/soccer facilities.

I agree with point one. Hate the stuff for soccer

Point two is my impression as well, but I wondered how "the Rice Women's Soccer Team" feel about it. They may be attached to their 1920's bungalow.

Point three is an issue. Without taking out the first 5 rows or so, I think we would HAVE to be 5-10 yards narrower than the pro-forma, which matters but could actually work to our advantage... AND I wouldn't do it unless there were some way to create disappearing lines (an as yet unknown bio-degradable/disappearing product that held up for 12 hours after a rain? so that we didn't have one of those albatross fields)... get the science department on that. You could permanently paint the center logo and the conference tags, sidelines and a few shared lines.... but we don't want to diminish either experience by a shared facility.

Can't speak for the ladies, but I would suspect playing on a non-regulation field would be a negative for recruiting and would make it seem that we don't want to be first rate in soccer. I firmly believe that other coaches would use it against us in competitive situations. The program is on a very nice trajectory so I would hate to do anything to negatively impact it.

It would be interesting to see what it would take to expand the field size (taking out rows as mentioned) to accommodate soccer & lacrosse. I think the big drawback would be the amount of wear the field would take by increasing the number of games each week.

RE: Soccer at HRS - Hambone10 - 09-13-2013 02:24 PM

"regulation" is a loose term. The field would certainly be "regulation" as it is not (that I am aware of) as proscribed as a football field is. The GENERAL dimensions are minimum 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. IIRC, most are 120 yards long and 55-60 yards wide... but a football field of 100 (using the end zones as an end line) or 120 (using the end line as an end line) and the 50 yard width of a football field WOULD meet all of the "regulations" I am aware of. The important lines are the 6, the 18 and the mid, not the length or width (beyond at least 50 x at least 100).

I have no idea about LAX, but I assume they are equally flexible.

The biggest difference would be for set pieces from the corner or deep sidelines as we would be more accustomed to the exact dimensions at home. We could mark the corners of the grass practice fields to reflect the width of our stadium or any other we would play in.

Wear is a potential issue which is why I suggested adding another grass practice field. Reliant's grass certainly gets far more use than HRS.

Perhaps a bigger issue is that we would want fewer fans on it before and after games.

RE: Soccer at HRS - I45owl - 09-13-2013 02:36 PM

(09-13-2013 02:24 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: "regulation" is a loose term. The field would certainly be "regulation" as it is not (that I am aware of) as proscribed as a football field is. The GENERAL dimensions are minimum 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. IIRC, most are 120 yards long and 55-60 yards wide... but a football field of 100 (using the end zones as an end line) or 120 (using the end line as an end line) and the 50 yard width of a football field WOULD meet all of the "regulations" I am aware of. The important lines are the 6, the 18 and the mid, not the length or width (beyond at least 50 x at least 100).

I have no idea about LAX, but I assume they are equally flexible.

The biggest difference would be for set pieces from the corner or deep sidelines as we would be more accustomed to the exact dimensions at home. We could mark the corners of the grass practice fields to reflect the width of our stadium or any other we would play in.

Wear is a potential issue which is why I suggested adding another grass practice field. Reliant's grass certainly gets far more use than HRS.

Perhaps a bigger issue is that we would want fewer fans on it before and after games.

NCAA SOCCER 2012 AND 2013 RULES AND INTERPRETATIONS

http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/SO13.pdf Wrote:The field of play shall be rectangular, the width of which shall not be more
than 75 yards [68.58 m] or less than 70 yards [64.01 m] and shall not exceed
the length. The length shall not be more than 120 yards [109.73 m] or less
than 115 yards [105.16 m].
Note: The optimum size is 75 yards [68.58 m] by 120 yards [109.73 m]. Facilities
in use before 1995 need only to be rectangular the width of which shall not exceed
the length.

Note that the penalty area is 44 yards wide, so a 50 yard field would only allow 3 yards to each sideline.

RE: Soccer at HRS - mebehutchi - 09-13-2013 02:41 PM

This is where the new AD can really make a difference. He is also in charge of the Health and Wellness center and the intramural and club sports. A bit of help for these teams that wear the blue and grey is warranted. The Lads need to update their website, but their league site indicates they play UH here at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Will the athletic department let them play at the Soccer stadium or will they be relegated to the intermural fields?
[/quote]

I don't think the girls soccer program should be forced to share their field, especially since its not just the lads and lacrosse who would like access. It would be a lot softer for the rugby club to get tackled on that pitch than the alternating concrete slab to swamp land the current field lays on. And I'm sure ultimate and quiddich would be the next to want access. However, club sports and the university have been terribly unhelpful with any attempt to upgrade the field situation(not just no, but H NO!) even if offered full outside funding for a multipurpose field. Hopefully this attitude changes but I'm doubtful.

RE: Soccer at HRS - I45owl - 09-13-2013 02:45 PM

In the "aww, ****" department, I just pulled up the womens' soccer schedule. Not only is there only one game on TV this year, but their sole visit to the metroplex was on August 18 vs. TCU.

RE: Soccer at HRS - georgewebb - 09-13-2013 03:08 PM

(09-13-2013 02:41 PM)mebehutchi Wrote: I don't think the girls soccer program should be forced to share their field, especially since its not just the lads and lacrosse who would like access. It would be a lot softer for the rugby club to get tackled on that pitch than the alternating concrete slab to swamp land the current field lays on. And I'm sure ultimate and quiddich would be the next to want access. However, club sports and the university have been terribly unhelpful with any attempt to upgrade the field situation(not just no, but H NO!) even if offered full outside funding for a multipurpose field. Hopefully this attitude changes but I'm doubtful.

One thing that might help your case is to avoid referring to an intercollegiate sport as "girls soccer".

RE: Soccer at HRS - Hambone10 - 09-13-2013 03:13 PM

(09-13-2013 02:36 PM)I45owl Wrote: NCAA SOCCER 2012 AND 2013 RULES AND INTERPRETATIONS

http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/SO13.pdf Wrote:The field of play shall be rectangular, the width of which shall not be more
than 75 yards [68.58 m] or less than 70 yards [64.01 m] and shall not exceed
the length. The length shall not be more than 120 yards [109.73 m] or less
than 115 yards [105.16 m].
Note: The optimum size is 75 yards [68.58 m] by 120 yards [109.73 m]. Facilities
in use before 1995 need only to be rectangular the width of which shall not exceed
the length.

Note that the penalty area is 44 yards wide, so a 50 yard field would only allow 3 yards to each sideline.

Thanks for finding that. The best I had found was http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/soccer101/a/101_Field.htm that describes a 100 x 100 field as possible. I know I've played soccer on PLENTY of football fields, but not in college.

I'd also note that there is probably another 10+ yards on both sides to the wall, so getting to 60 or perhaps even 70 yards is possible, but it would be snug IMO. The sideline is only proscribed as ten feet in your link... so if there is 13 1/3 yards from the sideline to the wall, we can fit.

[Image: File:Rice_University_Stadium.jpg]

[Image: File:Rice_University_Stadium.jpg]

RE: Soccer at HRS - mebehutchi - 09-13-2013 03:29 PM

(09-13-2013 03:08 PM)georgewebb Wrote:
(09-13-2013 02:41 PM)mebehutchi Wrote: I don't think the girls soccer program should be forced to share their field, especially since its not just the lads and lacrosse who would like access. It would be a lot softer for the rugby club to get tackled on that pitch than the alternating concrete slab to swamp land the current field lays on. And I'm sure ultimate and quiddich would be the next to want access. However, club sports and the university have been terribly unhelpful with any attempt to upgrade the field situation(not just no, but H NO!) even if offered full outside funding for a multipurpose field. Hopefully this attitude changes but I'm doubtful.

One thing that might help your case is to avoid referring to an intercollegiate sport as "girls soccer".

I don't think it would. But, FWIW that was not in any way a slight (sexist, ageist?), I would call (men's) tennis boys tennis the same way in an informal forum. Thanks for wearing the message board police badge so proudly though George.

RE: Soccer at HRS - Tiki Owl - 09-13-2013 03:35 PM

I wasn't really looking for a "complete" move to HRS (though that could be something for the future) but was looking more for a one time game to increase exposure for the women's team. I would think you would want it to be a non-conference game (just to minimize the effect of the non-standard playing conditions)and by tying it to the football game a chance to joint market both games. You certainly could offer group discounts to both youth football and youth (particularly female) soccer groups. You would get some who would come for one game or the other but hopefully you would get some for all or part of both.

RE: Soccer at HRS - georgewebb - 09-13-2013 03:45 PM

(09-13-2013 03:29 PM)mebehutchi Wrote:
(09-13-2013 03:08 PM)georgewebb Wrote: One thing that might help your case is to avoid referring to an intercollegiate sport as "girls soccer".

I don't think it would. But, FWIW that was not in any way a slight (sexist, ageist?), I would call (men's) tennis boys tennis the same way in an informal forum.

I believe that you did not intend any slight, or that you might refer to Rice tennis as "boys tennis".* Nonetheless, I am entirely reasonable in suggesting that your message would be better received if you said "men's" and "women's" rather than "boys" or "girls". A message is more effective when it omits things that distract the reader or listener from the main point. Fillers like "uh" and "like" are one type of distractor; sloppy grammar is another; word choice is still another. The fact that such things are unconscious to the writer/speaker does NOT make them undistracting to the reader/listener.

*Truth be told, I do tend to doubt that anyone would off-handedly refer to NCAA tennis as "boys tennis", but I will take you at your word.

(09-13-2013 03:29 PM)mebehutchi Wrote: Thanks for wearing the message board police badge so proudly though George.

I have not tried to suppress your message or to initiate any penalty against it. I am offering a suggestion to make it better. Advising is not policing.

RE: Soccer at HRS - I45owl - 09-13-2013 04:50 PM

(09-13-2013 03:13 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: Thanks for finding that. The best I had found was http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/soccer101/a/101_Field.htm that describes a 100 x 100 field as possible. I know I've played soccer on PLENTY of football fields, but not in college.

I'd also note that there is probably another 10+ yards on both sides to the wall, so getting to 60 or perhaps even 70 yards is possible, but it would be snug IMO. The sideline is only proscribed as ten feet in your link... so if there is 13 1/3 yards from the sideline to the wall, we can fit.

I think FIFA rules are similar. But, the width is why Soccer in football-specific stadia generally don't use 120 yards, but are closer to 100 because the only way to get reasonable width means the corners can't extend through the endzone, given the curvature of the stands.