The athletic areas on the inside and outside of DGS look very different than they did last school year.
Over the summer, DGS acquired new additions to the campus, which include a new track, new stadium turf, new stadium scoreboard and two new scoreboards in the large gym. Fall sport athletes and coaches have mixed opinions on the new renovations.
Varsity boys soccer coach Chris Hernandez had a positive opinion on the new playing field. He believes that the old surface was coming to the end of its days.
“Pebbles [were coming] up to the top and you [didn’t] get a good grip [anymore],” Hernandez said. This led to redirected ball bounces and less traction on the player’s cleats.
Senior Aleck Galvez, one of Hernandez’s players, believes the new turf is a great privilege.
“The new turf gets the team more excited to play home games,” Galvez said.
Hernandez believes the new turf benefits his team’s performance.
“[The new surface] leads to consistency for our players…and offers confidence and reassurance to play,” he said. The new turf also aids in injury prevention due to a slicker exterior.
Boys soccer is not the only fall sport getting a kick out of the new turf. Varsity football junior Justin McLain is greatly appreciative of the new surface.
“At first I thought it was just an extra thing to have but now I think it’s great. You can really tell the difference on your feet… and [it] just shows how cool the Downers community is to be able to provide and make that,” McLain said.
McLain, like Galvez, believes that with the new turf comes a newfound exhilaration to the team.
“[It] definitely gives us more motivation to play and show the people that we deserve to have new turf,” McLain said.
Running alongside the new turf, the new bright blue track can be found most commonly occupied by girls and boys cross country runners during this fall season.
Junior boys cross country runner A.J. Handy had some input to include about the new color choice of the track.
“Blue light activates the awake instinct in humans, so it helps wake me up for our morning workouts and the days I do not get enough sleep,” Handy said.
Although the color is his favorite part of the new track, Handy finds the new track to be beneficial as, “The softer surface helps reduce impact in strides,” which then allows for more training to happen during their practices.
One of Handy’s coaches, Sean Senf, agrees with Handy’s statements and furthers them by explaining, “With a softer surface you reduce things like shin splints,” which many runners tend to fall victim to.
Similar to what Hernandez had stated before about the turf, Senf also believes the old track “had very little life left in it… when you ran on it you could feel the asphalt foundation [below].”
Senf clearly highlights the importance of the new track, as he stated, “ [The] soft surface helps our athletes remain uninjured, and that new surface helps athletes run faster,” creating a perfect combination to help the runners go the extra mile.
Speaking of going the extra mile, Senior girls runner Holly Johnson believes the school really outdid themselves with these new renovations– maybe too much. Although Johnson goes on to describe the new running surface as, “Absolutely stunning and perfect,” she is opinionated on the fact that, “The turf didn’t need to be replaced, the scoreboard was a waste of money and we should’ve redone the locker rooms instead.”
McLain heavily disagrees with the statement regarding the scoreboard arguing, “[The scoreboard] 100% brings up energy at games. The video we play at the start of each home game is one of the coolest things I’ve seen…I think it shows some of the history of South football and really brings excitement to the team.”
Inside of the school, the girls volleyball team does a similar thing with their new scoreboard. Junior Juliana Padavic explains the team made a ‘professional style’ hype video that is displayed before the games. Although it may not be as serious as the football video, Padavic highlights that it always brings a good laugh to the team.
Padavic shared similar thoughts with Johnson surrounding the scoreboards, touching on the fact that, “I think it’s really cool that we have them, but I imagine it was pretty expensive…never something I thought that we truly needed at our school. I feel like the money could have possibly been put towards a better cause.”
