Throughout the past decade-plus that DePaul College Prep has existed, the school’s size has grown from around 500 students to over 1,300. With the growing size, the school has made several changes and additions to its campus. Since the move from the former Gordon Tech Campus in 2020, the school has reinvented the existing west and east wings of the school, built a stadium for school assemblies and games like football, added a south wing for increased classroom space, and is now currently creating a new practice field for field hockey, football and lacrosse.
Ever since DePaul Prep has moved to its new campus, Athletics Director Patrick Mahoney has been “trying to find as many spaces for our teams and our athletes to perform and practice, and that (green space) was one of them, but it needed to be developed and needed to be flattened out.”
He has been working since the fall of 2020 to try and create a natural grass practice field in the open green space in front of the South Wing and lot. Serious planning was able to start after the completion of the South Academic Wing.
Michael Passarella, a Physical Education teacher and Head Varsity Football said that all of the sports coaches had a meeting with the Athletic Department to discuss the development and use of the space. He said the new field is especially necessary because of football growing to include three levels and teams and field hockey being added. As for right now, he says, there has not been any talk about gym classes using it and most likely, the field will be used for just sports teams because gym classes are able to use the field turf and Gordon Tech.
Passarella also said that the plan for the practice field is that field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse will use it the most. Currently, varsity teams use the field turf and most lower levels use Clark Park; now all levels will be able to use the practice field on DePaul Prep property. This will allow for even easier access and more space in general for the teams. Passarella said, “Many teams have late practices, so now a team can utilize it and kids can be done and go about the rest of their day. Having the extra space is a huge benefit for all our field teams.
According to Mahoney, construction started in mid-October and the manual work is done. The field had to be flattened because it used to involve an element of hazard.
Mahoney said, “when I walked it before, I would be very careful about letting teams go out there. I’d say, you have to really walk it, because there’s some real swells and some actual holes…now at least it’s flatter…the whole space is safer.”
Mahoney said that “the work itself is complete. We need Mother Nature to rain on it a bit more, because it’s been pretty dry…I’ve heard and felt that grass really needs three seasons to take…I’m not going to really consider the fall, because it was so late October. So I’m going to say winter, spring, and summer.”
Passarella said that now that the field has been flattened and reseeded, which he said lasted only a few days, it should be ready to use in the fall of 2025, since there has to be time for the grass to grow and be ready to use.
