University Chronicle

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Anya Vaverko Student athletes and members of Campus Rec attempt to keep warm while laying out the dome fabric across the turf of Husky Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

The green turf of Husky Stadium was covered in white Wednesday as student athletes and Campus Rec employees collaborated to put the field's seasonal dome together.

Although the dome structure will not be raised until Friday due to high winds and flurries, workers were on the field at 7 a.m. and worked throughout the day to prepare the dome to be raised.

"Everybody did a terrific job today," director of Campus Rec Ron Seibring said. "There's always a lot of work involved in getting this done, and it wasn't the best weather outside for it."

The process involved unfolding more than 50,000 pounds of fabric over the field, stringing support cables through each piece of fabric and attaching each piece of fabric with joining bolts for every six inches of fabric seam.

Additionally, maintenance workers were kept busy Tuesday with installing the doors for the dome, taking down the field goal posts and getting the dome's fabric on the field from its storage facility located off the northeast corner of the stadium.

Of course, the payoff of having the dome makes all the work worthwhile for Campus Rec and SCSU athletics.

With the dome inflated over the winter season, sports teams are rewarded with a spacious practice facility with a favorable surface to run on. Sports teams were previously forced to practice in the fieldhouse.

"The dome has just been huge for us in terms of what we're capable of doing for winter practices," head coach Randy Hedberg said. "There's a lot more space to work with, and we get to practice on the surface we play on."

On the flip side, club sports and students are rewarded with better opportunities to utilize athletic facilities on campus. With sports teams practicing primarily in the dome, students are allowed to use the fieldhouse more frequently, and club sports are able to practice at reasonable times.

"Sports clubs aren't practicing at 3 in the morning in the fieldhouse anymore. They now have access to a better venue at better times," Seibring said. "Plus, students don't get booted out of the fieldhouse basketball courts in the afternoon."

Seibring said the dome is generally raised following the football team's final home game and the conclusion of area soccer tournaments. The date is also determined based on weather conditions.

The date in which the dome gets lowered in the spring time is determined in coordination with student recreation schedules and the date of the football team's scrimmage in the spring.

"We have a lot more flexibility with when we can lower the dome," Seibring said. "We're generally working with much better weather, and the football team's scrimmage is usually near the end of April."

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