Turf Field Has a Name: Trinity Health System Field

Turf Field Has a Name: Trinity Health System Field

Franciscan University and Trinity Health System, a local Catholic-based health care provider, recently announced a new partnership supporting the Franciscan Athletic Program.

As part of the partnership, Franciscan’s new synthetic turf field will now be known as Trinity Health System Field.

Trinity Health System Field is used by Franciscan’s NCAA Division III men’s and women’s soccer, lacrosse, and track and field teams, as well as for recreational and intramural contests.

It will also be used for community activities, such as a spring combine at which area high school athletes put their talents on display before college coaches. The walking track will be open to the public.

Franciscan University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, says, “In our formal agreement, both Franciscan and Trinity Health expressed our shared mission to promote moral, spiritual, and religious values that make the presence of God known in our world. This partnership will enhance Franciscan’s mission to provide our student-athletes with faith-based, virtue-driven athletic programs.”

Matt Grimshaw, CEO of Trinity Health System, says, “We share the same set of values, and as Franciscan looks to grow their student base, grow their health sciences programs, we look at that as our future workforce—and that helps grow the community.”

Located on the west side of campus below the water tower, Trinity Health System Field offers a commanding view of the Ohio River and the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Student-athletes immediately noticed improved performances because of the synthetic turf.

“Our practices are so much smoother, we’ve had fewer injuries [than on a grass field], and the atmosphere at night games under a fully lighted field is so much more energized,” says Annie King, a lacrosse player and psychology major from Westerville, Ohio.

“I remember trying out for the soccer team as a freshman, taking shots that normally would go right in the net on a turf field, and they’d veer to the corner flag because they hit a clump of grass,” says Sebastian Koehler, a soccer player from Ashburn, Virginia, enrolled in the MBA program. “Incoming freshmen aren’t going to know how blessed they are to have this synthetic field.”

Trinity Health System Field is encompassed by an eight-lane track that will be finished during the phase-two construction, which will also include men’s and women’s locker rooms, a new scoreboard, and other capital improvements.

The partnership was providentially announced on October 22, 2021, the feast day of St. John Paul II, who said athletic competition builds virtue and can be “a means to total and harmonious physical, moral, and social development.”