After just one week of usage, UW-Platteville's renovated Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium is drawing rave reviews from the people who have already played in the facility.
The $1 million renovation project (paid entirely by student fees) put a state-of-the-art in-fill ProGrass surface on the field, which has been widened to include soccer. The 10,000-seat stadium also features impressive landscaping in front of the visitor's bleachers and in the corners opposite the scoreboard as well as decorative fences and other new touches. A new scoreboard will soon be installed.
"A year ago as we stood on the field after beating UW-Stout (on Nov. 13), I remember looking around the stadium and felt without a doubt we had one of the best football stadiums anywhere," Pioneer Coach Mike Emendorfer said. "I was wondering if we would lose some of that bowl atmosphere, but now being in the new stadium, I think we have out-done ourselves and made this one of the top facilities certainly in the state, if not the nation. It is an incredible stadium."
The UWP football team saw the first action on the new surface, beginning practice August 15. Platteville High School's football team also had a chance to work on the field, practicing on Aug. 18. Two days later, the Pioneer soccer teams took to the fields.
"The stadium is breathtaking with the surrounding hills in the distance, the pine trees that surround it, and with amount of fan capacity the stadium has," Pioneer men's and women's soccer coach Chris Bianchi said. "It makes it a Division I atmosphere."
UW-Platteville students voted to use student fees to allow for nearly year-round usage and a variety of UW-Platteville teams, clubs and intramurals, as well as the Pioneer Marching Band, to use the stadium. With the grass surface, only five home Pioneer football games and four or five Hillmen games were played in the picturesque stadium.
Last Saturday was a perfect example of the renovated facility's capabilities. Both football and soccer staged day practices, and then the football team held its intrasquad scrimmage that night. While the larger-than-anticipated crowd mingled with the players after the scrimmage, the women's soccer team began warming up for its practice and then began its practice under the lights.
The 400 or so football fans in attendance marveled afterwards about how the surface feels just like a grass surface and the beauty of the project.
"This is a fantastic facility for our student-athletes who want to live out their dream of playing college football," Emendorfer said.
The first regular-season games begin this week. The Hillmen football team plays host to Darlington Friday at 7 p.m. The UWP soccer teams play host to the University of Dubuque Thursday, Sept. 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m., while the football Pioneers also christen the stadium against Dubuque on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.
Soccer returns to the stadium for the first time in 20 years, and Ralph E Davis Pioneer Stadium is easily the largest soccer facility in all of NCAA Division III.
"Playing in the largest DIII soccer venue in the country will give us a huge home-field advantage," Bianchi said. "The rush that the players will get from being able to run out onto the field from below the stadium, with the music pumping and fans cheering will be something they will never forget from their soccer experience at UWP."
Fourteen soccer games and two football games will be contested at night, another advantage for the Pioneers.
"Parents, friends and family members will be able to watch more games because of our ability to have evening matches," Bianchi said. "This will also reduce the amount of class time students would miss because of the later starting times. Being able to have our video crew tape games from the top of the stadium pressbox while using a second camera on the visitor's side will be extremely helpful for game breakdowns. Showing the same play from different angles will help with player development and increase our tactical readiness for future matches."