Spalding University soccer teams begin practicing on new soccer fields

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Spalding University soccer players started practicing this week on their new $7 million fields at Ninth and Kentucky Streets.

“What a breathtaking kind of moment,” Spaulding’s woman’s head soccer coach Shilo Rayburn said.

The soccer teams used to play at high schools and at a field in Jeffersonville. The new fields are Spalding’s first soccer and softball fields in the program’s history.

“For a lot of us, it was kind of like a pipe dream,” Spalding sophomore goalkeeper Kayle Strehle said. “They said ‘Maybe we'll get it done. We're not sure. It's going to be so much effort, so much time.’ But for this to come to fruition is so exciting.

“It really is truly a place for us to call home."

This year, the team has been practicing at DeSales High School and at Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville.

“Women's sports are often looked over," Strehle said. "To know Spalding not only cares about D3 sports and their athletes, but women's athletics as well, is really something you don't get a lot of other places.”

A new field close to campus means more supporters, a new tool for recruiting and a new house to protect.

“It's already paid dividends,” Rayburn said. “We have a few commitments for next year. I think this is a big draw.”

The turf softball field will be done sometime this fall, and the new facilities allow the university to consider adding a field hockey and a lacrosse team in the future.