By Jared Shafran, News Staff

I cannot wait to be in attendance for the first game of the year at the newly-renovated Matthews Arena. All the news coming out about the project has been positive. Everyone who has seen it has commented to me about its brilliance. The place and the teams that play there are gearing up for a big season and all of the arena’s new features have created a big buzz on campus.
The slogan ‘Now is the Time’ has been repeatedly used by the Athletics Department when referring to its sports, and when athletic director Peter Roby addresses the media, he wants to talk not about just one or two of his teams, but about all 17 of the school’s sports. Now all the talk about the renovation brings up a burning question for fans of Northeastern athletics.
When is the time for the other sports at Northeastern? Now that men’s hockey and basketball seem to be set to go with their newly renovated space, the university needs to look into the facilities at which their other sports are playing.
At Parsons Field, the home of the football, baseball and soccer teams, there are many issues. The locker rooms are small and are not able to house both football teams comfortably. The Huskies’ baseball locker room doubles as the visitor’s football locker room, and while it could be an advantage for NU if the other team isn’t comfortable, it would be nice if our football team could enjoy the same amenities that the basketball and hockey teams do, even if they have to be in Brookline.
Yes, the football team is 0-3 this season and has yet to impress, but maybe if some more money was put into its program and facilities we might see some results. Now is the time for the Athletics Department to decide. Either have a team and really put all of your resources behind them or cut the team and use the money for sports like volleyball, swimming or soccer.
Having a team that cannot compete in such an expensive and time consuming sport is really not helping anyone.
As for field hockey, the team started this year off with a 4-3 record with all of their games coming against out-of-conference opponents.
I recently talked with Pam Aldridge, a star forward on the team. She had some thoughts on playing at the Wentworth-owned Sweeney Field.
‘Ideally when you’re playing field hockey you don’t want the field to double as a baseball diamond because sand and field hockey turf just doesn’t mix,’ Aldridge said. ‘What you want is to have a wet turf because the ball rolls smoother. Soccer doesn’t want that because a lot more injuries happen with soccer if you have a wet turf. The people we are sharing it with are conflicting to our sport so I think, for now it’s fine because it’s a good location, but the surface is the problem.’
In addition to the problems at Sweeney, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams are currently playing on the field at Parsons that is doubling as a football field. Maybe, just maybe, that has just a little bit to do with the fact that so far this season the men’s team has only scored two goals in five games, only amounting to one win.
With Matthews finished and ready to go for the upcoming winter sports season, now is the time to get some plans in place to renovate our other venues and redefine the meaning of a home advantage.

Check out 104.9 FM or www.wrbbsports.com to hear all the action of your Huskies. Catch the Dog Pound Sports Sound every Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for discussion about Husky sports. Coverage of the football team’s game at Villanova begins at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday.

‘