Although the playing surface at Derr Track is ready to host games this year, the track surrounding the field is still about a month away from being finished, leaving the N.C. State men’s and women’s soccer programs to look elsewhere as they open their seasons.
So long as the track is still undergoing work, Derr Track is a construction site that cannot be open to the public. And until further notice, home games for Wolfpack soccer will be at Method Road Soccer Stadium or Cary’s SAS Soccer Park.
According to Senior Associate Athletics Director David Horning, extra money was spent to have the field sodded with the idea that the field could have been used sooner.
But for the time being, senior Jessica O’Rourke and her teammates can only look, not touch, where they originally thought they would be playing next week.
“It’s definitely a bummer,” O’Rourke said. “You walk by, and you see it. And the grass looks so nice.”
Horning said the contractors had some trouble getting someone to start on the track earlier over the summer.
“It has to do with the subcontractor and the contractor not being able to get it scheduled and get their crew here,” Horning said. “They were supposed to start at the end of May, beginning of June.”
The procedure first had black asphalt placed on the track, with a 30-day curing requirement following after.
“They came around and laser-shot the black asphalt to see if there are any dips and undulations and percentage of incline on it, based on the oval,” Horning said. “If it does not meet the form then you have to go and repair it, so that happened.”
With the asphalt layer uneven, progress was set back, and another crew had to be coordinated to come in and permanently put the track down.
“Right now a crew is coming in the last week of August to make any repairs, then the main crew is going to come in at the beginning of September to start installing the track,” Horning said. “[It’s] probably going to be a 30-day process once you put it down. You make sure it’s level, and you cure it. Then you stripe it, paint it and do the whole deal.”
Until the last stripe is painted on the track, no one can compete in the middle of it. There are hazards and liabilities that make it unsafe to open for the public.
“The project is not closed, and it’s a construction site of Scotia Construction Company by law, and you get into liability issues,” Horning said. “The project will not be turned over to the University until the track is complete.”
O’Rourke said she had heard the field wasn’t going to be available at all this season. And she’s one September hurricane away from being correct, but for now, the new timetable has the field possibly opening in early October.
“I’m optimistically hoping at the beginning of October, we’ll have a track complete and signed off,” Horning said.
“There’s no guarantee that at the end of the day, based on weather, when you’re installing a track and everything else that it’s going to take less or more than 30 days.” Men’s soccer coach George Tarantini and his team have already moved on, focusing on what needs to be done to win, regardless of where that is.
Tarantini said his team would play in the parking lot if it came to that extreme.
“We’re not dealing with that,” Tarantini said. “We have to be positive, and everybody is very focused and ready for Saturday.”
On Saturday, Tarantini’s squad will face No. 1 UCLA at Method Road — that is, unless it rains, in which case the coach said they “will have to go to some place else.”
Method Road is generally in good condition but it drains poorly and can really come apart when beaten up when practice is held on it during the week.
For senior captains El Hadj Cisse and Hugh Cronin, the uncontrollable situation no longer worries them.
“We’re not even worried about the field. Wherever we play, we’re ready to go,” Cisse said.
Like the coaches and players, Horning said it has been frustrating, but out of his control. He had already decided that he would not accept a lesser quality track even if it meant the soccer field would not open on time.
“You have to understand what you want at the end of the day and not sacrifice any quality,” Horning said. “The only way you would sacrifice quality is if you went with a less standard of track. And we’re not going to do that, so we have to sacrifice time.”
Feeling the pain of the soccer programs are also the track teams. Also thrown off course due to the construction, the program hasn’t had a home track to train on in more than a year.
“I’m more frustrated for our track team,” Horning said. “They’ve been out of training track, so they’ve been using local high schools.”
