THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Chill's new old home is ready for action.
Following a $1 million rebuild of the pitch at Chapples Park, on Friday a pair of youth teams christened the newly opened field, which the Chill abandoned in 2015 because of poor drainage that left it all but unplayable.
Chill coach Gio Petraglia, who took over the team after it had moved to Fort William Stadium, was behind the bench on Friday night guiding one of the two sides, and said having the field repairs finished bodes well for the future of youth soccer and the United Soccer League 2 franchise.
The Chill took this season off because of the pandemic, but plan to be back on their old stomping grounds in 2021.
Petraglia said competing and practising on grass is how soccer is meant to be played, especially at higher levels
“Even training-wise, over the past four years we've had so many injuries that were cause by Fort William (Stadium), which was too tough. We had lots of back injuries,” Petraglia said. “It will make the shape of the team better physically as well, but mentally as well.
“We feel this place is our home, not to mention the community. The community likes to watch the games here better.”
Petraglia said at first glimpse, the field looks pretty good.
“Not bad so far,” he said. “We just played 45 minutes, so it's hard to tell, but we'll see how it will be after and we'll see if it keeps raining how it keeps up.”
That's precisely why Tom Forsythe was on hand on Friday night, taking in the opening game. However, he was more focused on the field than the product playing on it.
Forsythe is the supervisor of parks for the city's south side and oversaw the rebuild, a complicated endeavour given the location in Chapples Park, a notoriously swampy area of Thunder Bay.
“This was a major construction job. We actually had to drain the sub-grade, before we could even start thinking about building the field. There are multiple drain lines under the field in the sub-grade, to take away that water, and then we engineered the field from there up,” Forsythe said.
“Then we've got about a foot of gravel on the field. Then there's a geo-textile fabric on that and then there's more drainage on the field itself and a new irrigation system – and then the turf itself on top of it.”
Forsythe said adding a field of this quality to the city's stock has plenty of benefits, and not just for the Chill.
“If you talk to any soccer players, they prefer to play on real grass rather than the plastic stuff. It's a good opportunity. The one thing about doing it the way we've done it for the Chill, who plan to play here, it gives them a bit of consistency,” he said.
“They're not going to have to worry about if it rains the night before having to cancel it and move everything ... And with a quality field like this, plus the artificial turf fields, I think it will open things up for Soccer Northwest to bid on provincial championships because we have the fields and we'll be able to use this one for the championship games.”
Forsythe said the plan was to open the field for the start of the 2020 season, but winter damage necessitated the delay to September.
