Sean Taylor Memorial Field — the site of the Upper School’s home football, soccer, and lacrosse games for more than a decade — is soon to go through some drastic changes starting in May 2022.

The Upper School is beginning the process of upgrading the fields, according to Athletic Director Lazaro Fernandez. The field will be moved west and placed where Crossbridge Church stands now. To accomplish this, both the Sean Taylor Memorial field and the side practice field will be torn up. 

“We did a land swap with the church so that the church will be pushed northwest,” said Fernandez. “In early 2023, the fields will begin to be completed and will have kind of the same setup with softball, football, lacrosse and soccer.”

The field’s impending construction has already caused disruptions to team practices, since multiple spring teams have been forced to move to alternate off-campus locations.

“I am very sad that the field is being moved because we have to practice in a park that is very far away, which takes away from our practice time just trying to get there and back,” said sophomore Giulia Francez, a member of the girls lacrosse team. “The other field is also not turf, which is harder to play in since turf makes playing way more convenient.”

Since the field construction will not be finished by the next school year, in 2023 the home games will take place off-campus.

“We will have another practice field, which will take a little longer to be built,” said Fernandez. “Some of our teams are already practicing outside of the campus, and obviously next year we won’t have a home field so we will be playing our games at other locations which are still to be determined.”

Sophomore Ian Uccelli, who plays football and lacrosse, said he is frustrated about the new field construction, especially if delays in construction, cause sophomore and junior athletes to miss home games during their senior sports seasons.

“I won’t be able to use [the new field] that much because it’ll already be sometime in my senior year by the time it finishes. I just don’t like how they are going to do it and think they should have found a way to have one field open before closing both,” said Uccelli.

The project  is expected to take between approximately one to one-and-a-half years to complete.