With one of the better athletic programs in the country, Duke obviously boasts many elite teams. Although women’s golf and both basketball programs have been staples in the national rankings for several years, field hockey has the best chance of winning an NCAA Championship. They’re the reigning NCAA Runners-Up, have a pair of All-Americans returning, and they’ve been recruiting well in comparison to other national powers.
Duke has all the keys for maintaining that level of excellence—superior talent, coaching, prestige, academics—everything, that is, except a superior place to play.
Williams Field, isolated from most students and from decent parking on East Campus, is a fair athletic facility, in and of itself. It’s got a new scoreboard. That’s nice. The team locker rooms are in nearby Brodie Rec Center. But it’s essentially a turf field with bleachers lining one side that don’t even extend the entire length of the sideline.
But it pales in comparison to the facility at North Carolina, the other field hockey power in the area. Its five-year-old stadium seats a little over 1,000 people, houses the field hockey team’s own locker rooms and meeting space, and attracts huge crowds nearly every home game. Even the UNC band attends big games. And it is placed in the core of the UNC athletic complex, with ample parking available and a concession stand to boot.
Last season, when then-No. 2 UNC hosted then-No. 4 Duke, 942 fans were there to watch the Tar Heels win; when No. 3 Duke hosted No. 2 UNC a few weeks later, only 400 fans were in attendance to watch Duke beat North Carolina in field hockey for the first time since 1981.
So why is a new stadium, in a new location, necessary? For the same reasons Duke built the Yoh Football Facility; for the same reasons Duke is building a new basketball practice center; for the same reasons the lacrosse/soccer stadium is getting a considerable facelift. Duke’s trying to compete with other programs, and its trying to provide the best facilities it can for its athletes and its supporters. Further the location is important because people will actually be able to attend the games if they’re conveniently located near where students live.
Granted, field hockey isn’t exactly a fiscal priority to an athletic program, nor is it a staple for undergraduate fan attendees. It’s not going to generate revenue; t-shirts won’t be sold on the internet; fan-sites won’t be dedicated to the minutiae of the athlete’s lives.
If Duke is dedicated to winning in field hockey, then it will take the next step and put Duke on a level playing field.
So this program does not have the history of UNC’s—yet. The Tar Heels won three consecutive NCAA Titles in the 1990s; Duke just advanced to its first Final Four last season. But it’s a fun sport to watch, and its a sport that Duke can be a significant player in for years to come. But when the nation’s very best recruits are shopping for schools, there is simply no comparison between UNC’s facilities and Duke’s.
And though I am a firm believer in the adage that ‘marble teaching in wooden halls is far better than wooden teaching in marble halls’, such a sentiment is hardly valid when it comes to the athletics arms race. The turf isn’t greener on the other side—it just resides in a better stadium. And that needs to change.
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