With the Homestead boys soccer team’s 2025 season on the line, Lucas Mersky, senior, sprints down the field, splitting two defenders and timing his pursuit to reach the loose soccer ball which dribbled off the turf perfectly for him to deke the keeper and knot the game up at 1-1.

Just minutes later, Lucas Bogel, senior, also manages a bounce off the turf to take the lead against Cedarburg, and ultimately send them to State, as students mob the field and encircle the victorious players.

These two crucial plays beg the question of whether they would have been made on the notoriously muddy Homestead grass field, where Tony Navarre, boys soccer head coach, believes the ball moves much slower. If this game were at Homestead, the grass field would hinder the play, and with a great interest within the boys soccer team to upgrade to turf, many wonder if and when Homestead will finally see progress towards turf for their team.

The start of the issue lies with the dissatisfaction with the grass field. Brady Youngstrom, junior soccer player, thinks the team gets tired of the poor field conditions later into the year.

“The team likes the grass field to start the season, as it is nice and flat. When the grass grows too long without a cut, we dislike it because the ball moves so slowly. Eventually the field gets shaped badly and divots all over it. This is when the team gets sort of tired of the field.”

With the recent success of the boys soccer team, many wonder why they have not been allowed an improvement of the field. Navarre considers that the field would be beneficial to other sports along with Soccer and believes that joining forces for fundraising could be a potential solution.

“If we had support and someone to help organize, getting together with the lacrosse teams and fundraising something for both groups could work,” Navarre said.

Although this sounds enticing, Navarre also recognizes the main hurdle to implementing turf.

“The initial cost is high.” Although Navarre recognizes this impediment, he preaches about the long-term benefits that accompany a turf field.

“I don’t think there are any other setbacks, it seems like it’s cheaper to maintain, we would be able to use it consistently for rec and all the other stuff, obviously soccer games, we wouldn’t have field issues that we have had in the past six to eight years.”

Jeff Patterson, assistant boys Soccer coach, adds to the list of pros toward investing in a turf field.

“The difference is maintainance, usability in all weather, as far as play speed of play turf fields play so much faster than grass. It doesn’t take laying out lines, everything is built in.”

Overall, Navarre and Patterson, along with the consensus of most of the team recognize that the benefits of a turf field outweigh the downsides, but why has there been no progress toward funding?

Patterson thinks that they need someone to organize.

“(We need) organization of this, just actually organizing a tangible plan for it to happen; the money is in the community, the need is there, the success of the team is there, and we see other schools in the area, look at Nicolet. Look at other ones that have access.”

A part of the desire for improved facilities stems from general issues arising and dissatisfaction with the current facilities as they are. Patterson says, “The practice field is a parallelogram.”

Patterson also then envisions some ideas of what the turf improvement would look like.

“It would go where the varsity field is. Ideally put a structure as a pseudo locker room.”

The development would be helpful to multiple sports that require turf or field to play on like lacrosse or soccer. Patterson suggests that just using the football field is not adequate considering scheduling and logistical issues.

“It’s the difference that the girls in the spring have to share with lacrosse, but the lacrosse practice times complement girls soccer, but at the end of the day, the football field isn’t wide enough to put a true soccer-sized field and have enough out of bounds to be safe.”

Although there has not been any progress toward implementing a turf field, Navarre remains hopeful for the future.

“[Interest] has been high, but we need an organized group of people who are interested in pursuing [funding],” Navarre said.