ST. BERNARD, Ohio — Roger Bacon senior Anna Schlichter stood on the new turf at Bron Bacevich Stadium late Thursday morning and smiled.
The soccer player can’t wait to practice and compete at the true home of the Roger Bacon soccer and football programs this season. A new field design and turf awaits an estimated 120 student-athletes this second half of the fall sports season.
“I’m super excited,” Schlichter said. “I think it looks really good and I’m excited to play my last year here on the new turf.”
WATCH: Roger Bacon's stadium receives new turf
Bron Bacevich Memorial Stadium received an upgrade to its playing surface after an August storm caused the original turf to be contaminated after a storm sewer overflowed.
The Motz Group quickly stepped in to assist the school to replace the turf within the past month. School officials worked on a new design and early reviews are excellent.
“It looks beautiful,” Roger Bacon athletic director Steve Rossi said. “It’s really nice to have it in. We can kind of see the finish line from here. And I think we are giving our kids and our coaches and our community a little bit of hope that we’re going to have some home games very, very soon.”
The boys and girls soccer teams along with the football team had to adapt to playing non-traditional home games the first half of the season.
“We’ve played at Walnut (Hills),” said Jenn Laking, Roger Bacon’s girls soccer Director of Operations. “We’ve played at MND (Mount Notre Dame). We’re kind of all over the place so we’re really looking forward to getting back and having a true home.”
The hope is for the teams to start practice on the new turf possibly by next week. The Roger Bacon football team is scheduled to play host to Canal Winchester Harvest Prep at 7 p.m. Sept. 25.
Rossi said the student-athletes will enjoy seeing the new turf.
“It looks so colorful, so beautiful,” Rossi said. “We came up with a great design. I think they’re going to be really, really excited to be able to do something on something that is brand new and we’re really excited to be able to get going with it.”
The stadium is named after the late former Roger Bacon football coach.
The stadium has hosted several standout football players over the years, including current NFL players James Thompson Jr. (San Francisco defensive lineman) and Corey Kiner (New England running back). Pro Football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach, a 1960 Purcell graduate, also played at the stadium.
