By Emily Keenan

The City Council iscurrently considering a proposal to use private funding to convert one of Rye’s grass playing fields, that is closed to play more than half the year, to a turf field that would be open for kids to play on twelve months of the year. You might think this is a conversation about turf.   

This is not about turf. This is not even about sports. This is about kids.

The mental health of our kids is of increasing concern. This is being widely reported in the national media and here in Rye. Never before has there been a generation of kids who needed to be outside, running around, having fun with their friends more than the cohort of children who lost a year of their childhood to the pandemic, who were shuttered away from teachers and friends for months, who were asked to complete the socio-emotional growth of elementary school by way of an iPad, and who have already spent more time on screens than many of us would have thought was healthy for an entire childhood.  

Youth sports programming provides exactly this — outdoor time, exercise, laughter, joy, and camaraderie among friends. In fact, the science has been clear for decades that participating in youth sports supports the mental, social, emotional, and physical health of kids. But sports programming requires fields that can be used, and we don’t have enough of those in Rye.

We have an overabundance of young athletes — driven largely by the enormous growth over the last twenty years of girls participating in sports thanks to the landmark gender equity legislation known as Title IX — and a shortage of usable fields. Our one turf field is not enough to serve all our athletes. And our grass fields are closed for most of the year to rest them for the peak seasons, and then even in those peak seasons they suffer above-average closures — hundreds of hours of closures — because of poor conditions.

What does this mean for our kids? It means that on days when they would love to be outside, they are more likely to be inside. It means that on days when they would love to ride their bike to a local field and play pick-up, they are more likely to be home on a screen. It means that on days when they would love to be running around at soccer practice with their friends, they are more likely to be sedentary. 

Some people will worry about the drainage of a turf field. You don’t need to. These fields are specifically engineered to improve drainage and water management in the area where they are built. Some people will worry about environmental contamination. You don’t need to. There have been countless studies, most recently several conducted in Wilton, Conn., to determine that there is no harm to groundwater or nearby waterways by these fields. Furthermore, there are now popular organic turf infills made from organic coconut husk and cork. Not only are these infills biodegradable, but they are the same materials used in wetland restoration. Some people will say that they just prefer to look at grass as the drive by. Okay. But is your preference for looking at a grass field more important than thousands of kids accessing the mental and physical health benefits of outdoor play?

Every other town around us has made the health of its children a priority. Bronxville, Pelham, Larchmont, Harrison, Port Chester, New Canaan, Darien, and Wilton have all built at least two, and as many as four, year-round fields to support their kids. These towns didn’t build these fields because they love turf. They didn’t build these fields because they love sports. They built these fields because they love their kids.

The author is a volunteer coach with Rye Youth Soccer.