Tava Mountain rises west of Colorado Springs, overlooking the city and Colorado College’s two turf fields, Washburn and Stewart. The two fields have become a point of contention among student-athletes due to the turf’s texture.
Washburn Field lies south of Stewart Field and is typically used by the lacrosse and track teams, the latter using the track that rings the turf. Men’s and women’s soccer teams typically use Stewart. Both fields are used by club sports and intramural athletes throughout the year.
According to Colorado College’s website, Stewart Field is a “state-of-the-art venue.” Some athletes who frequent the fields, however, tend to have an opposite view on the matter.
“It’s the worst turf I’ve ever played on,” said Leo Priesman ‘26, captain and goalie for the men’s club soccer team.
“The turf on Stewart is horrible,” said Katie Craven ‘26, an ultimate frisbee player. “It’s so hard that our cleats can’t properly dig in, and when we try to make quick cuts, which require a strong plant to change directions, people’s feet often slip out from under them.”
“Most well-maintained artificial turf should be replaced every 10 years,” said Chris Starr, Director of Campus Recreation and Fitness Center.
CC renovated the fields in 2019 before the Division I women’s and Division III men’s soccer seasons, according to Colorado College’s website page on Stewart Field, indicating they are approaching their seventh year of wear and tear.
Corporations typically install turf in three different pieces.
The first is the base, which typically consists of leveling a gravel layer to provide a base and drainage. That’s followed by laying out the carpet, which holds fake grass blades. The last element that goes into a field is infill, typically rubber pellets, which props up the blades and provides cushion.
However, Colorado College selected a different option for infill when renovating the fields in 2019, choosing to use “Corkonut,” which is advertised on CC’s website as helping moderate temperatures while maintaining a similar consistency to natural grass. Corkonut is a combination of cork granules and coconut husks.
“An important note for Corkonut is that, due to its organic nature, it needs to maintain a proper moisture level, which can be difficult to maintain in the dry Colorado weather,” says Ricki Rothbauer-Stubbs, assistant athletic director of operations. CC attempts to maintain the moisture levels by watering the fields before matches.
Colorado College typically replenishes the infill on each field before the primary varsity team’s athletic season. For Washburn, that is lacrosse in January, and for Stewart, that is for women’s soccer in August.
The CC website describes the turf as an “enhanced organic turf system” that maximizes environmental compatibility.
“The fully recyclable turf system utilizes nature to provide the comfort of meeting all of the most important safety and performance requirements,” reads the CC website page for Stewart Field.
However, some athletes believe that the turf affects their health.
“We have had two non-contact ACL tears on the turf this season, including myself and personally, I also took extra precautions of wearing turf cleats designed specifically to play on artificial ground to reduce the chances of knee injuries,” said Eden Palkovic ‘27, a Division I soccer player.
“We have no objective data that the turf causes more injuries due to it not being studied, but subjectively, the turf is very hard and doesn’t provide strong traction,” said a varsity athletic trainer, who asked not to be named in order to speak frankly about the topic.
Under the turf, CC uses the ShockDrain580, a shock attenuation and synthetic aggregate technology pad that is optimal for athlete performance, according to CC’s online Stewart Field page. The pad is unique and used in “new generation” sports fields for water conservation and field foundations.
Over winter break, CC followed its annual maintenance of refilling the Washburn infill. However, according to Starr, the athletics administration was in consensus against refilling with Corkonut and instead replaced Washburn’s infill with rubber pellets.
The replacement took five days, during which the turf company introduced 88,000 pounds of rubber pellets to the field. Starr witnessed workers utilizing a process akin to plowing, in which they dump the pellets and then rake them into the blades to help prop them up.
“We’re constantly looking at the fields in terms of what kind of maintenance they require and what’s the best, most comfortable infill,” said Rothbauer-Stubbs. “For all turfs, including rubber, you add infill every year due to weather, wind and those types of things. We learned that rubber would retain its position a little bit longer.”
During the decision-making process of replacing Corkonut with rubber pellets, the athletics administration examined the most financially advantageous option, the most cost-effective for yearly maintenance and the one that would improve player performance.
“Ultimately, we wanted to get to where we’re using what’s most advantageous for the players that are on it, first and foremost,” said Rothbauer-Stubbs.
The lacrosse team, the primary team practicing every day on Washburn, has shown a very positive response to the change in infill, she said.
Not just lacrosse players have appreciated the new turf.
“It’s much preferable to the intolerable slippage on the old turf,” said Tobin Spiller ‘26, a club ultimate frisbee player who practices two to three times a week on Washburn year-round.
Another benefit of the new rubber pellet infill is the cost, which is significantly cheaper and more convenient than Corkonut, according to Starr. For the old Corkonut infill to be installed, CC had to place an order well in advance and have it shipped out from their suppliers on the East Coast.
“Then we have a big rainstorm and [the Corkonut] all flows away,” said Starr. “Now our supplier is an hour up the road. We can just call and ask for 10 bags and they deliver at a third of the cost.”
Staff within the athletics administration met on Feb. 5 to discuss the future of the Corkonut infill on Stewart Field, with hopes of getting it done during spring break, much earlier than the usual August infill replacement date.
“Stewart has its own set of challenges in redoing it,” Starr said. It is a larger field than Washburn and there are a couple of basins that collect water in the southwest and southeast parts of the field. Although they are off the playing surface, they can still pose a problem. Some additional spots on the playing surface also collect water, such as near the goalie’s position.
Additionally, CC’s financial administration is deciding which school division should pay for the infill, with the two most likely candidates being the athletics department and the facilities department.
For some students, it doesn’t matter where the money for the infill comes from; all that matters is that they have a more comfortable, safer surface to play on.