Home is where the heart is. For the Western Colorado University women’s soccer team, they’ve been forced to move their hearts and home north to Colorado Mesa University (CMU).
The Mountaineers have had to make the two hours and fifteen-minute journey to Grand Junction from Gunnison to play at Walker Field…for their home games. While their current field has been under construction since the summer, Western has been forced to rent out Walker instead of playing at WCU.
“It’s been a little tough,” Western Head Coach Amy Bell said. “Grand Junction isn’t that far so it hasn’t been terrible but it is definitely a different experience to travel every weekend.”
Back in July, it was announced that Western would be constructing a new turf soccer field on-campus. Their original Gateway Field is grass and the school wanted to get with the times of turf fields. The project was supposed to be completed back on Aug. 19 in time for their opening game, however, contracting and maintenance issues during construction forced the school to change companies mid-project.
Because of the sudden roadblock, the Mountaineers started the season without a home field to play on, and CMU offered them to rent out Walker Field to host their home games while the brand new field gets finished.
So for the six “home” games that Western has had this year, none of them was in Gunnison. Home sweet home was CMU.
“They were kinda upset and disappointed at first when we found out the news,” Bell spoke on her team. “But this group of girls has done an amazing job staying positive and trying to make the best of the situation. They’ve started calling Walker Field their home field. It’s been really great for them the way they’ve reacted to it and risen above it to just keep going.”
Because of their games taking place on Friday and Saturdays, the Mountaineers have to travel every single weekend. If their games were played in Gunnison, the women would be able to stay at home and enjoy their own beds in between games. Instead, it has been two straight months of traveling every weekend without a break.
“In reality, we’re only on our campus four days a week now,” Bell said. “It seems like it’s not enough time to get everything ready. I mean some of the girls feel like they don’t even unpack their bags. So they just get back on the bus on Friday and travel on out of town.”
Not to mention that one of the biggest parts of the home games is the fans. Western Colorado is known for having one of, if not the highest athletic fields in the entire country due to the elevation they sit on. The elevation and the fans make up the distinctive advantage of playing in Gunnison but this season, Western has had to settle for much fewer fans and a lower elevation.
“We call them our home games but they don’t necessarily feel like it,” Bell said. “We get a really good crown in Gunnison, anywhere from 100-300 people and we don’t see that here.”
It’s not like the students of Western will make the two-hour drive with the team every other weekend they play in Grand Junction so the natural support that should be present has not been.
Thankfully, the new turf field is scheduled to be done the final weekend of the regular season and should allow Western to play on the new field for their final pair of home games on Nov. 1 and 3. Weather has been a factor in constructing the new field and snow has been spotted in Gunnison, but if it keeps permitting and the project can be completed on time, the senior Mountaineers can have a Senior Night on their actual home turf.
