Greg Griffo took a quick glance at the score as he lazily walked around midfield. He juggled the ball with his stick before dropping it on the ground; the defender took a step towards him. Griffo sprinted to the ball and proceeded to seamlessly swoop it up, fighting off the defender with his free arm. Avoiding slashes, he sprinted towards the goal and ripped a shot into the upper right corner so fast the goalie could do nothing but shake his head afterwards.
“That’s the player of the year right there!” One of Griffo’s teammates yelled to the Saint Leo sideline as they ran back to the bench.
Griffo went on to score three more goals in the 18-8 route of Saint Leo as the University of Tampa men’s lacrosse advanced to the Deep South Conference championship game.
“We’re very thrilled,” head coach Rory Whipple said. “We wanted to win the conference and the tourney. We got the first part of that goal done.”
Griffo, a second-team all-DSC player last year, improved his game in the offseason through workouts and weightlifting and was named player of the year for the DSC conference.
“Player of the year is awesome,” Griffo said, smiling through his mouth guard at practice. “I came in [to the year] in better shape. Worked out harder this offseason; did some weight lifting and went outside shooting as much as possible.”
The win over Saint Leo was the second in less than a week at the brand new Naimoli field, a stadium built primarily for lacrosse.
“The stadium is awesome,” Whipple said before practice Thursday. “It’s one of the nicest lacrosse facilities in any division in college athletics.”
The new stadium features nearly 2,000 seats, a state-of-the-art scoreboard and an artificial grass surface.
“[It’s a field] every kid dreams of playing on,” sophomore Drew Motschwiller remarked excitedly.
While most players and coaches had nothing but good things to say about the new stadium, there was some small distaste with the fact that turf was chosen over natural grass.
“Natural grass is preferred, turf gets hot,” Whipple said concisely. “In the summer it gets real hot, we’ll have to practice at night.”
Griffo, felt the heat of the turf wore the players out faster but reassured that it wasn’t a problem.
“We [The team] just like to complain,” Griffo said.
Other players preferred the turf to grass as it provided better footing but admitted that the heat could be a problem.
UT facilities director Jerome Fulton was aware that this could become an issue and explains that to combat the heat of the turf an underground water cannon was installed while the facility was being erected. The cannon can quickly spray water on the turf, cooling it down to a playable temperature.
Artificial turf was chosen for the new field despite its higher cost of installation and coach Whipple’s preference to play on grass. Athletic Director Larry Marfise explained that in the long run turf will have been the less expensive option as the upkeep and maintenance required for grass fields adds up.
“Nobody truly prefers turf,” Marfise said, sitting at his desk in the Martinez Athletic Complex. “But the field won’t get torn up. Granted, it costs more money to install but in the long run, it equals out.”
The new field gives the school a lot of flexibility with scheduling teams and allows for the possibility of hosting more playoff games as well as conference tournaments.
“It gives us an advantage over other schools, they can’t say our field is not good enough or it’s too worn out,” Marfise said. “We also don’t have to kick kids off the field at Pepin, because that’s supposed to be for you guys.”
While the Naimoli Athletic and Intramural Complex opens new avenues of opportunity for the athletic department, the field could not have been built without overcoming several hurdles. Permit holdups, sewage and drainage issues and city versus state property were just a few obstacles that pushed the original unveiling of the stadium back nearly four months. Not to mention the limited space the school had to build the stadium.
“There was a lot of discussion on which way the field should face,” Marfise explained. “Some including myself wanted it to be north and south. The president wanted it the way it is.”
Marfise admits that with the angles of the railroad tracks and the limited space to work with, the field, as it sits now, is the best position. However, as the sun sets in the west, it lines up directly in the eyes of the near side goalie, an obvious competitive disadvantage.
For that reason, games are required to start after the sun has dipped below the horizon.
“We would generally start games around 6 or 7 p.m.,” Marfise clarified. “Before daylight savings time it’s not going to be a problem. Around this time of year we’ll have to push the games back. That’s the reason we had to push back the ceremonies for the opener.”
Despite the field not being finished until the hours leading up to the unveiling and that there are still some small things to be fixed, Marfise is more than happy with how the field turned out.
“Some of the gates open the wrong way and they’re some issues with drainage that need to be sorted out,” Marfise said. “But overall I think it turned out to be absolutely beautiful.”
After the opening of Naimoli field, the athletic department went right back to the to-do-list to see what was in-store in regards to future facilities.
“The University has a master plan for what it wants to do next,” Marfise said. “Expanding the science lab is on-deck. As for us, a new fitness center is the next priority.”
The plans for the new fitness center include tearing down the Ferman Music Center and replacing it with a multi-story fitness center complete with an indoor gym that will be up to three times the size of the current McNiff center.
The new facility would feature all glass walls so students working out could look down at the newly relocated pool, placed directly next to the sand volleyball courts.
Marfise says they are still in the midst of talking with possible donors about funding the project but stated that if a donor walked through the door today with the money, they would break ground immediately.
Nathan Krohn can be reached at nathan.krohn@spartans.ut.edu.