November 13, 2008 issue
Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex Dedication Ceremony Sunday
Story by David Hunter
The new state-of-the-art Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex will be dedicated on Sunday, November 16, at 4:00 p.m., at Brookshire Park on Brookshire Drive, just off Highway 421.
The $1.2 million project was completed just as soccer’s fall season began, but construction cleanup and lack of parking delayed official ceremonies. But no longer.
“We’re past the dream stage now,” said an exuberant Fay Binning of the High Country Soccer Association, who spearheaded the campaign for a soccer home, following two decades in which teams played on one field or another. “We’re here,” Binning said. “I drove my two daughters and wife Brenda all over this county for years to games. Then there was our [Field of Dreams] campaign.”
The grand opening will feature a ribbon cutting by the late Ted Mackorell’s wife, Dr. Stacy Conn, and speeches by Conn, County Commissioner Jim Deal, Appalachian State Athletic Director Charles Cobb and Binning. Also in attendance will be many volunteers, private donors and representatives from businesses who, Binning said, gave time, talent or money. A soccer clinic will be held after the dedication.
“This is a celebration for all the years players didn’t have a home field to play on,” Binning said. “We want all the former players to come out and wear their old jerseys. We’d love to see them.”
The ceremony will be held three years and two days after the untimely death of Mackorell, former Appalachian State soccer star and founder of Makoto’s Seafood and Steak House of Japan in Boone. Conn and her family wanted the field named in his honor and donated generously to the High Country Soccer Association.
One look at the new complex under lights, as on Saturday night’s chilly first-round Southern Conference tournament game between Appalachian State and College of Charleston, explains Binning’s smile.
Players were happy, bouncing in warm-ups on a soft, cushy mixture of synthetic turf, lifelike-looking grass made of recycled tire bits. The field dimensions replicate those of certain professional fields in England. Credit that to Binning as well, who duplicated, to the inch, the measurements of Appalachian State coach Shaun Pendleton’s favorite field in Sheffield, England: 118 by 76 feet. Sideline inclusion makes it 130 by 90. A slim, surface-level concrete curb surrounds the field from there, seven yards shy of a fence consisting of some 900 feet of 26-foot-high netting.
The lighting is the same type—Musco of Iowa—used on college and professional football fields, NASCAR tracks and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. According to Binning, the lights will only cost about $12.30 an hour to operate. “It’s incredibly efficient,” he said.
And there isn’t just one field like this, but two. Both will be used to host multiple practices and games during the spring and fall soccer seasons.
And there’s no shortage of players.
The High Country Soccer Association’s older boys help stock Watauga High School’s boys program. “We are very enthusiastic about what we’re seeing,” said Pioneer head soccer coach Johnnie Gailes.
Other HCSA teams include three older girl’s teams, one with one travel date remaining to Atlanta in December. Also, six younger teams have filled out fall rosters, with more to be formed in spring. And hundreds of Watauga County Recreation Department players will use the fields, as well as the Appalachian State team. The Mountaineers will play their home games there and will be the only Southern Conference school to host games on turf.
“Love it, love it!,” said Debbie Richards, senior associate athletics director at Appalachian, who was in attendance Saturday night.
“It’s a great statement that the university and community can work together,” Athletic Director Charlie Cobb said. Adding that the complex “exceeded expectations,” he added that, as a father of soccer-playing children, “now you can go to one place, and see college and the young play.”
The county provided 12 acres of land and rough grading to get started. The HCSA bought the turf and infrastructure. About the time Binning’s team needed a final push, Appalachian State entered the partnership. The Mountaineer logo is firmly fixed at midfield on Field No. 2, site of Saturday night’s contest.
After a decade and half of public fundraising and private donations organized by HCSA, the planning phase was “a pretty quick process once it got going,” said Watauga County Parks and Recreation Director Stephen Poulos. Actual construction took place in phases this year.
“I always believed we could do it,” Binning said, “and once we got our first $300,000,” he added, with a pause for effect, “we knew we were going ahead with it. We just got our people together, and said, we’ve got to believe in this. There were so many things to put together.”
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