Poor weather and drainage issues at Guy Wicks Field have negatively impacted the Idaho women’s soccer team, intramural and club sports at the university this year.
Despite earning the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Conference postseason playoffs, Vandal soccer was not allowed to host the Nov. 4 tournament because of detrimental field conditions.
In addition, mud delayed the university’s intramural flag football championships for two weeks.
Guy Wicks Field has experienced drainage difficulties throughout the last decade, which routinely results in soggy and unplayable field conditions.
Gregory Tatham, the assistant vice provost for student affairs, has been working on a remodel of Guy Wicks Field since the mid-2000s. Tatham said the field would see improvement with the addition of drainage upgrades.
“If we could get the field in condition to drain properly, then we wouldn’t lose game times,” Tatham said. “It’s been the wettest October, and our intramural director has cancelled games all the time because we just can’t be on the fields.”
Butch Fealy, the associate director of competitive and recreational sports, said the field’s conditions have negatively impacted intramural athletics.
“This by far the most difficult year to program and reserve space at Guy Wicks to date,” Fealy said. “We wanted to have as little impact on the field as possible.”
Dan Ewart, vice president of infrastructure, said the field was originally built on an old landfill.
“When you have the kind of rains in October and you play the pitch heavily, it became unplayable,” Ewart said. “There’s no way to repair it on a short period of time to get ready for the conference tournament. It’s going to be a long-term fix.”
According to Tatham, the drainage tiles, which remove excess water from the soil, are in subpar condition. He also said the drainage gradient is too low, allowing water to pool on the field.
Tatham brought in Mike McNeil, a construction superintendent with Shaefer-Meyer Seed-Sod, to evaluate the field. McNeil said ideal renovations would include stripping the top layer of soil to replace the tiles and shifting the gradient to move water into Paradise Creek. If UI kept grass on the field, the cost of the remodel would be estimated at $300,000.
Ewart said the university has multiple priorities to consider, and the decision came down to renovating Guy Wicks Field or constructing the Idaho Arena.
“The students decided to fund the arena fee and not fund the Guy Wicks fee,” Ewart said. “We love to put money to the field and improve the drainage and playability on those fields. That certainly continues to be a project that’s on our list if funding becomes available.”
According to Tatham, UI and the Student Recreation Center shared an account devoted to field management. In 2003, the university used $350,000 from the account to purchase a wireless computer system for the Idaho Commons and UI Library, instead of creating a new fee account.
Tatham said the university’s decision was necessary and provided students with laptops and computers, but it has tightened the current budget.
Trina Mahoney, the budget director at UI, said the process of creating a dedicated student fee account is lengthy.
“It’s looking for people who currently have a fee, and they must give out information of how they’re using the fee to apply future funding,” Mahoney said. “As long as they fill out the financial template and answer the questions that are outlined in the memo, they’re invited to do a presentation at the Student Activity Fee Committee.”
Mahoney said the presentation process takes place in January, and the committee prioritizes funding. If approved the proposal goes to the State Board of Education in April before a decision is made.
Mahoney said she attends the activity fee meetings and provides advisory rules to students.
“I don’t advise the students on what to approve or not to approve, it’s up to them,” Mahoney said. “I’m there more to ask questions about the existing fees and sometimes they want to know if they’re building up a balance or what are they spending their money on. I have access to the financial system, so I can help them.”
Mahoney said she does not recall any discussion about Guy Wicks Field, but she believes it came down to students not wanting to increase fees.
Fealy said he was frustrated with the outcome.
“The administration had to make tough decision and once it was done, it was done,” Fealy said. “We’ve kept going back through the student fee process to start collecting money again, but there’s always been other priorities students have been focusing on.”
Debbie Huffman, the director of administrative and physical operations for student affairs, said money for the fields account has not been collected since the 2006 fiscal year.
“There’s no fees going into the Outdoor Recreations,” Huffman said. “Until there is, there’s a little residual fund left — about $117,000 — and it’s not enough to take care of large improvements.”
Huffman said facility fees related to aspects like Guy Wicks Field go through upper administration.
The process of renovating Guy Wicks Field would take about a year.
Fealy and Tatham both said scheduling is already an issue for athletics, intramurals and club sports. An out-of-commission Guy Wicks could leave the three entities scrambling for space.
“As the day gets shorter, students can’t play or practice intramural and club sports between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. because they have classes and can’t get everyone together,” Tatham said. “Usually our intramural and sports programs get going with practices after 5 p.m. When it starts getting dark at 7 p.m., that doesn’t leave very much time to get all the games in.”
Ewart said field improvements would play a key role in developing programs at the university.
“The fields are okay now but it can be better,” Ewart said. “They can be more playable for longer periods of time and get even more use than they do now if approved. It’s worthy of a long-term investment.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles