New Surface Helps Waikato Dio Maintain 90% Participation in Sport

Work has begun on a new multi-use sporting facility for Waikato Diocesan School for Girls that will feature a high tech sporting surface and will be fully lit to allow for year-round training.

The facility will include a hockey field, six tennis courts and a cricket lane, all of which will be surfaced with TigerTurf Tournament 1000, a high tech sports surface with a high performance shock pad.

Waikato Diocesan Principal Gillian Simpson says the new all weather facility will provide the school with a multi-use teaching, training and matchplay centre, which can ultimately be used to further encourage sporting skills, performance and achievement within the school especially in tennis and hockey.

"We have 650 secondary students at Waikato Diocesan who are all encouraged to participate in some kind of sporting activity as part of the all round ethos," said Simpson. "We have 90% of our students involved in team sports compared with the average of 48% for New Zealand secondary schools."

"Training and coaching is a logistical challenge and up until now our hockey teams have been going off site for training. We have a strong history of girls who have gone on to become regional and national representatives in hockey, and we are committed to keeping this tradition going. We are delighted that this facility, with its high tech TigerTurf surface, will facilitate this by providing a surface on which the girls can train for longer, and allows us to host other schools."

"The facility also enables us to give something back to the community by allowing local primary schools to use the turf."

TigerTurf Operations Manager Ross Galloway says the TigerTurf Tournament 1000 surface was an obvious choice for the sports centre as it is technologically advanced and is designed to be suitable for a wide range of activities.

"TigerTurf Tournament 1000 is a dense and extremely durable surface, while the 5mm shock pad makes it kind to developing joints," said Galloway. "It is a low maintenance, versatile surface on which a number of different sports can be played, making it ideal for this kind of multi-use facility."

Surfaces Advisor for the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute, Spencer Myer, who will manage the project, says the multi-use facility will provide the school with an option to train in all weather conditions, which is particularly useful over the winter months.

"This synthetic TigerTurf surface allows students to use the facility over the winter period without getting muddy and bringing mess into the classrooms," said Myer. "The facility is also fully lit giving students the option to train in the early evening, which is difficult at present due to the short winter days."

"The school has sourced funding for this project from numerous parties within the wider community - it has been a great to see the community bind together for a single cause."

Excavation for the facility, which will be located in Clarkin Road, Hamilton, began in early May with the facility due for completion in December this year.