It is almost like the Intramural Field is itching to cause an
injury.
It is muddy in spots, sandy in others; it is wet, and the grass
is thinning.
It is, in the words of redshirt senior wide receiver Junior
Taylor, like sand that was “spray-painted green.”
It is also a practice field born of necessity.
The IM field has been home to the UCLA football team’s
fall camp for the past week because Spaulding Field, the
Bruins’ normal practice field, is being renovated. The Bruins
will be on the IM field for another week as the new grass sets on
Spaulding.
This renovation has taken longer than anticipated. The field was
initially supposed to be renovated last year, but work was delayed
because the cost would have ended up being too high, according to
Ken Weiner, senior associate athletic director of business
operations.
Last year, the project was put out for bidding as a unit ““
meaning a single company would take care of every aspect of the
renovation, including demolition and putting in the new field turf
and grass. Because the winning company did not specialize in all of
these areas, its projected costs were higher than the amount UCLA
was willing to spend. This year, the athletic department tried
again.
“I broke the bid up a little bit differently this
year,” Weiner said. “This year I divided the bid among
demolition and grading, the carpet installation, and the natural
turf installation. This way, every vendor knew their craft, so they
were able to give me their price.”
But even when the bid was in place, the project was still
delayed because of how long the bidding process took. After all the
paperwork was completed, the renovation began on May 15, meaning it
would almost certainly conflict with fall practice because it was
slated to be a three-month project.
Even still, the Bruins are going to be switching to Spaulding
early. There is a 90-day maintenance contract for the newly planted
grass, but the football team will be taking the field after the
next week of practice, just 30 days after the grass was put in,
voiding the last 60 days of what is essentially a warranty.
“The minute we set foot on it, their warranty is
void,” Weiner said. “That’s why we haven’t
been using it, because it would have invalidated anything that
could have gone wrong. If the sod was totally infested with
disease, I wanted it to be on their back that they had to replace
it, not me.”
The football team can’t wait to get off the IM field.
Taylor, who injured his knee last year, has had to wear his knee
brace in every practice on the field because he didn’t feel
comfortable planting in the bad conditions.
“It’s horrible,” Taylor said.
“It’s wet, it’s sandy, it’s muddy. You
really have to focus in and make sure you plant solid. This field
is not good enough for me to even try to take my brace
off.”
Toward the end of last year, Spaulding Field was beginning to
look as bad as the IM field looks right now. As such, the coaches
and players are willing to deal with the inconvenience to
eventually get back on a good practice field.
“We’ve been inconvenienced all offseason,”
coach Karl Dorrell said. “It’s just one of those
necessary things that you deal with.”