HIGH ACHIEVERS: Artificial turf field centrepiece of Ashbury College’s Game Changer project

By Martin Cleary

A multi-million dollar idea that has been floating around the Ashbury College campus for more than a dozen years has landed and could debut within a year.

During its annual homecoming on Saturday, the private Rockcliffe Park school officially announced its Game Changer project, which will see the revitalization of its outdoor athletic venues to benefit its elementary and high school students, whether they’re athletes or phys-ed students.

Today’s main natural grass field, which takes a beating by sports teams and phys-ed students every fall and spring and revived every time by the maintenance staff, will be replaced by a high-quality artificial turf field.

It will serve as the new home for Ashbury’s 11 outdoor teams in football, girls’ field hockey and boys and girls’ soccer, rugby and ultimate.

Beyond one end zone, track and field student-athletes will be able to practice on a sprint and hurdle lane and horizontal jumpers will have a pit for long jump and triple jump.

While the natural grass practice field will be retained, the project also will feature a multi-purpose outdoor plaza for classes, recess and community gatherings as well as improvements to pathways and wayfinding.

The long-awaited outdoor improvements will increase opportunities for athletics, physical education and outdoor programming and reduce cancellations because of weather as well as travelling to off-site sports venues.

The safe, modern venue also will have the Colts play more National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association regular season and playoff games at home in front of Ashbury students. By doing so, it also will reduce using school buses to transport student-athletes to a variety of games.

“At Ashbury, learning and growth happen everywhere, both inside our classrooms and across our campus,” Ashbury’s head of school Norman Southward said in a school press release to launch Game Changer.

“Our outdoor spaces are where students develop skills, pursue their passions, compete as teammates and build the confidence that comes from active participation.”

Southward added Ashbury has an opportunity “to transform these outdoor spaces into a modern and inspiring hub for athletics, recreation and community connection.”

“At the heart of this vision is a state-of-the-art artificial turf field, which will meaningfully expand time spent outdoors on our largest outdoor asset, complemented by enhanced track and field spaces, improved pathways and welcoming spaces for play and gathering.”

The cost of the Game Changer project is estimated at between $4 million and $5 million. If all the pieces of this puzzle snap together cleanly in terms of permits, construction and weather, the new outdoor venue could be ready for the 2027 Ashbury homecoming in September.

Ashbury has already raised $2.9 million and is actively fund raising to fulfill the financial demands.

One unique aspect of the Game Changer project is 10 per cent of all donations will be steered to need-based financial assistance for students.

“We’ve talked about this for years at the school because we have one main field, lots of sports teams and it gets a lot of wear and tear,” said Jon Landon, the Ashbury director of athletics and head coach of the football team.

“It has always been on the back burner … because there have been other needs (at the school). It’s a long time coming.”

Landon also is one of nine members on the Game Changer executive committee, including Emily Amano (Ashbury, 2018), who plays for Ottawa Rapid FC; Michelle Holman, retired head of physical education and a coach; parent Karr-Ming Lee and Andrew Nichols (1991).

The five honorary committee members include international rugby referee Julianne Zussman (2004), Nathan Bombrys, the CEO for Rugby Canada, and Stewart Johnston (1990), the commissioner of the CFL, who attended and did the pre-game coin toss at the homecoming exhibition football game between Ashbury and St. Patrick’s Fighting Irish.

Ashbury will be the fourth high school in Ottawa with an artificial turf field on its campus. The other three are Immaculata, Hillcrest and Franco-Cité. The Louis-Riel Dome, which has an artificial turf field inside a 400-metre track, has re-opened for students at Louis-Riel high school, after the structure collapsed in the late winter of 2025. Paul-Desmarais and Garneau high schools are also home to domed turf fields.

The Ashbury girls’ field hockey team will be particularly happy as every game the Colts play is an away game and they never play in front of their home fans. The Colts will now be able to play home games on their own field and cut their travel time in half to the Nepean Sportsplex, the home of the city’s only artificial turf field for field hockey.

Landon added the benefits of an artificial turf field are “beyond measure” for the students.

“It would increase our ability to offer curricular and co-curricular experiences for our students and put our facilities on par with the majority of independent schools in Canada and certainly in Ontario,” he said in the press release.

An artificial turf field would allow for a consistent playing surface no matter the season, fewer cancellations because of weather and more chances and space for all types of activities.

The high-tech surface will extend the fall and spring seasons, reduce pressure on indoor spaces for practices and the track and field lanes will allow sprinters and horizontal jumpers to train at home instead of travelling to the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

Ashbury also added it’s committed to not using PFAS man-made chemicals on the field to resist water, grease, heat and stains. An updated and modern home field also eliminates long commutes to play home games off site.

Ashbury hopes to put out the call for contractors in January, 2027, and see the project start to unfold in March.