The students at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School have waited years to practice and play under the lights, and now that the project is mostly complete, students and staff share their feedback on the result.
Sports are a big part of the Hamilton-Wenham community, which helps to bring it together. However, the high school facilities haven’t always been in the best shape, causing teams to have limited practice spaces and times.
The field project had been in the works for over a decade, according to Athletic Director Craig Genualdo. The original goals of the project included efforts to alleviate pressure on the public town fields, which were being used by high school sports teams.
Teams struggled in the past on the old fields due to the condition they were in. Instead of grass, it was mainly dirt and divots, which negatively affected the teams’ practices.
Principal Bryan Menegoni said, “[The old fields] had an adverse impact on our student athletes, because kids would work hard, have good seasons, and by the time they got up to state playoffs, the fields were unplayable because they were just so torn up.”
This caused teams to have to play off-campus for practices and games. Lucine Revette, a senior captain of the field hockey team, said that they used to practice on the fields behind the Hamilton-Wenham library. Unfortunately, the state of the library fields was not much different from that of the high school fields – numerous field hockey players became sick from inhaling dirt on a regular basis.
According to Genualdo, “a study was done on the field usage around the town…the study found that the best thing to do was to create turfed and lit fields at the high school, so that the high school could use those to relieve the towns, and the towns could use them on the weekends. It just started with that simple concept.”
However, there were difficulties backing up the project.“The project started or stopped about three or four times. It would go so far, and then it would just kind of die out of momentum,” said Genualdo.
There was also pushback from some town residents, which slowed the project and contributed to the reason it took so long to get approved, according to Menegoni.
After years of meetings, the project was approved in 2019, and the final vote was passed in the spring of 2023. Construction began in May of 2024. The total cost has not been finalized yet, as construction is still in progress; however, it is planned not to exceed $15 million.
Menegoni mentioned that construction took “a long time, longer than it was scheduled to be,” although the turf was completed in time for the 2025 season.
Revette enjoys using the new fields, “especially because field hockey is a turf sport. We really struggled on grass, with practicing, and all the fields we played away on were turf, and now that we have a turf to practice on, the ball moves a lot faster, and I think it’s really good for our team.”
Revette also mentioned the new track, saying “[the track] is really helpful because we have timed fitness tests.”
Jonas D’Arrigo, senior captain of the boys’ varsity soccer team, agreed with Revette, saying, “[the old fields] were practically dust and mud,” and the new fields were a great improvement. “It’s more of a level playing field…It took a little bit of time getting used to it, like when we first got on, because we’ve never seen the wood chips before, but we all like it.”
While most enjoy the new field, a few complaints have arisen, one downside of the project so far being that practice schedules have had to be adjusted to accommodate all the sports teams on the fields as much as possible.
Maddie Graber, senior girls’ varsity soccer captain, said, “Last year and in previous years we’d have more consistent practices with them just being right after school, so it’s definitely been an adjustment with some days being later practices, and then moving our schedule around that.”
However, Genualdo hopes the cramped practice times are a temporary problem; once the grass fields behind the Auxiliary field grow during the upcoming spring semester, teams will be able to practice there, adding two more practice spaces to the schedule.
Principal Menegoni is very proud of the outcome of the fields, saying, “It’s one of the nicest high school facilities I’ve seen.”
Senior varsity football captain, Robbie Bozarjian, said, “It’s really amazing what they did for us…It’s done with the most effort, it’s perfectly planned out, there’s not much more we could ask for.”
Menegoni said, “It’s a really incredible resource for the whole community….Now that kids are going to grow up playing on these fields, it makes them feel more a part of something, a part of being a General.”
