Many kids in Lawrence Township may participate in summer sports leagues this year, but when fall arrives, they’ll have a chance to participate in athletics on brand new fields.

Construction is under way at the former Twin Pines airport site to renovate the site to a new athletic complex. The Twin Pines site will feature three new athletic fields: a synthetic turf field will be for Hopewell’s use, and Lawrence will have two natural grass fields.

Twin Pines was actually purchased in 2008, which is when the small airport closed, but the groundbreaking took place last April at the facility located on the border of Hopewell and Lawrence.

The hope for the Twin Pines project is to address a need that’s been growing in the township for more than a year: field use.
Township manager Rich Krawczun said the overlapping of teams’ need for field time — mainly football and soccer in the fall, and soccer and lacrosse in the spring — has contributed to the shortage over the last year.

In particular, lacrosse has rapidly increased in popularity, and the Lawrence Lightning junior football team is another recent addition.

Krawczun said soccer teams can sometimes be found practicing on baseball fields in the fall because it’s the only space available.

Although it’s not ideal to have that type of shortage in the township, the need displays the success of the recreation programs and healthy activities for youth, Krawczun said.

“This is a great problem, in certain respects, to have,” he said. “Our youth are being offered an opportunity to have positive recreation programs ... so as much as it can be frustrating at times for teams and players and coaches, at the same time, it tells us barometer is reading correctly.”

The new fields will be open to the public, and available for use by any groups that are affiliated with Lawrence Township. The use of the fields will be scheduled, but other groups may also schedule, for a rental fee, to use the fields, Krawczun said. Hopewell will designate its own scheduling on the turf field.

The Twin Pines construction is a joint project between four Mercer municipalities: Lawrence Township, Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough and Pennington Borough. The project was funded through the Mercer at Play grant, which supports outdoor recreational facilities. The acquisition and renovation of the airport site totaled over $2 million, but cost was minimized due to grants from the county.

The fields, scheduled to be completed by the fall, are expected to be used primarily for soccer and lacrosse teams and may also host practices for the Lawrence Lightning football league.

The Lawrence Hamnett Soccer Association is one of the leagues hoping to play on the newly constructed fields, and has experienced first-hand the need of additional athletic fields.

Rico Scardelletti, president of the LHSA, said the league currently has two fields in use and a third one to rest each season, but the number of kids using the fields has continued to grow.

The league holds two training sessions five nights a week, and Scardelletti said any type of weather or precipitation keeps the kids off the fields: not because the players can’t handle the conditions, but because the fields must handle the weather and overuse.

“The fields get so much use, and with any kind of bad weather, the fields really get chewed up,” Scardelletti said. “We have a lot of cancellations, so it really impacts our training schedule.”

The league has 18 competitive teams in the spring season, which already makes scheduling difficult. But the fall season is when things get more complicated, because the recreational league adds another 600-700 players.

With the addition of the new fields, leagues like the LHSA will have another space to help accommodate the growing amount of kids participating in sports.

Scardelletti, who also participated in Lawrence Township athletics as a kid, said the prospect of new fields is an exciting one.
“We can’t wait to get on those fields,” Scardelletti said.