Photo: Courtesy of the Town of New Windsor Recreation Department
As park and recreation professionals, we are always looking to maximize field usage. At the main sports complex in Kristi Babcock Memorial Park in the town of New Windsor, N.Y., we do well in getting the most out of the fields by making them flexible. In the spirit of doing more with less, here are some ways for you to get the most out of your sports fields.
Painted Lines
The memorial park has seven multi-purpose fields. One side of the park has two full-size, all-grass fields used for soccer, football, and lacrosse, and a small field used for soccer and football for ages 3 to 5. One of the full-size fields can also be divided into two recreation-size soccer fields, or two touch/flag football fields. The various sports can be played on the same fields because different colors are used to paint the lines for each sport. The color of the lines depends on the time of year and the sports being played. For instance, in the fall football lines are painted white and soccer lines are painted yellow. In the spring, soccer lines are painted yellow, boys’ lacrosse lines white, and girls’ lacrosse lines orange. When only one sport is being played on the fields at a given time, white lines are used. Using different-colored lines maximizes field play for games and practices, which also increases revenue. To make this arrangement work, fields must also be equipped with football goal posts, soccer goals, and lacrosse goals at appropriate times. Problems that can occur are over-usage of fields and the added expense for paint because of the extra colors. To prevent over-use, the fields are rotated, and one field is a game only/no-practice field. The added cost in paint is covered by field rental fees or the organizations using the field pay for the paint.
Go The Distance
On the other side of the park are four baseball/softball fields. To accommodate both sports, the infields are skinned with no grass. Softball is traditionally played on all skinned infields, not infields with grass. The fields are large enough for all levels of baseball and softball, from youth to adult. Each field has ground sockets for bases at four different distances for baseball and softball, and three different pitching rubbers for softball.