It’s a long overdue change for the Spray Lake Sawmills sports centre in Cochrane, Alta.; the facility’s 20-year-old indoor turf is getting its floors upgraded.
The aging artificial turf will soon be replaced with a multi-court floor, allowing the space more flexibility to include other recreational activities like volleyball, basketball, pickleball, badminton, football and lacrosse.
But the change isn’t good news for everyone. It means that Cochrane’s primary soccer club — a group that raised funds for the facility at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC) — will lose its home pitch.
“We have nowhere to play this upcoming winter,” said Don Ross, president of the Cochrane Rangers soccer club, which was founded in 1985.
“The fields we’re on right now were built by the soccer community, essentially, the town leases the land to the soccer club and the club itself put up the money to build these fields.”
Both the men’s and women’s Cochrane Rangers teams that currently use the pitch will be left in the lurch.
The decision to change the flooring came in January. According to Ross, it’s near-impossible to play soccer on the soon-to-be implemented surface because of, among other things, the traction and the type of footwear that is required for the game.
“It’s designed for court sports where maybe there’s a lot of two, three steps, one direction and then change,” he said.
“Whereas soccer, we do more long, long sprints and to be able to stop and pivot during that, it’s much more difficult. The ball rolls and bounces a lot higher and faster on this surface.”
Ross added that the nearest option for them for the upcoming winter would be in Calgary, but those facilities are already booked up for two years in advance.
Upgrade ‘good for the community’
While the soccer club is feeling the loss, officials at SLSFSC are looking forward to the freedoms the surface will provide.
“We’re super excited about it. It’s a long time overdue,” said Catriona Hill with SLSFSC.
“It really is a multi-sport floor and it’s also a very accessible floor, which is something else that we’re working on a lot in our facility.”
With the change, Hill said the centre will go from having two gyms to five and will cater to Cochrane’s growing community.
As for the Cochrane Rangers, its athletes have one other option: switching sports to play futsal, a game similar to soccer that could be played on the new floor.
“We don’t know how successful that’s going to be with our members,” Ross said.
“Putting on my non-soccer hat, it’s the right decision … it just feels like the soccer community really is left to fend for themselves and not getting the support that that other sports seem to receive.”