There certainly is no shortage of both competitive and recreational sports programs in Mercer County.
Try to find something for the kids who fall in between the two ranges, though, and you might have to search a little harder.
That’s where PEAC Health and Fitness hopes to come in. The Ewing facility is home to a new indoor turf field, set to open Jan. 17 for a free trial week.
And while PEACTurf will be available for birthday parties, open play nights, field rentals and, later, summer camps, its main focus is weekly programs intended to develop skills in recreational or intermediate athletes who want to increase first their enjoyment of and then success in a given sport. More advanced athletes looking to fine-tune their skills can attend weekend sessions.
“I’ve played on teams with athletes whose parents put them on the team,” assistant director Patrick Brennan said. “They might not be on the same level as the other athletes. They’re forced to do it, and they don’t enjoy it. They don’t have anywhere like this to go. I really respect our mission.”
Athletes of all levels are invited to train at the 15,000-sq.-foot facility with coaches like Leslie Conant and Pam Edwards, who both coach field hockey and lacrosse at Ewing High School and Hopewell Valley Central High School, respectively. Scott Brunner, a former New York Giants quarterback and Lawrence High School graduate, and Ewing-based soccer coaches Ellen Murphy and Lauren Sparano—who played under Murphy in her first year as a coach at Fisher Middle School—will also lead programs.
Construction on the space started in October after PEAC president Michael Briehler finally put an idea he first had eight years ago into motion. The space had sat vacant since the center opened, but he always felt something would grow into it.
The field is lined for lacrosse, baseball and football, though it supports other sports like field hockey, soccer, cheerleading and kickball. The facility also holds a lobby, team meeting and party rooms, a juice bar and locker rooms.
“We’re kind of creating that image that this is a first-class facility for the kids,” Briehler said. “We’re not trying to provide the most competitive training programs. We’re trying to make it as fun as we can.”
He particularly prides himself on his staff members, who he said are the ones who really brought his vision to life. Director Chris Koslo, a longtime ESF Camps employee, is one of those team members. After meeting with Briehler for the first time, he said, he knew they were on the same page.
“The first thing he said was that this was something he wanted to build in this community,” Koslo said. “I was an athlete for a long time, and I was going down a path to the recreation field. It was a perfect fit.”
Sparano, who has worked at PEAC for a year, agreed.
“There are travel teams and high school teams, but those all have tryouts and elite players,” Sparano said. “there’s no way you can go in and have fun and learn. They expect you to know everything when you’re joining a travel team.”
It’s especially useful for soccer players during the winter, she added.
“There’s nowhere to go outside,” she said. “You get stuck in a gym with a basketball court. That doesn’t really help because you’re never going to be playing on a basketball court. It’s great to have somewhere inside, a real turf field. You go back outside and it’s like the same thing.”
Murphy said the turf fosters a supportive environment that caters to kids of all ages and skill levels.
“It allows kids to do something that they already enjoy and add on to that,” she said. “It’s being able to bring back that idea that sport is fun but also learning some skills and incorporating that piece of it. You don’t have to be an elite athlete to come here and be involved in one of the programs. You just have to be open and willing to learn.”
For Conant and Edwards, it’s a way to give back to a community that fulfilled them as lacrosse teammates at The College of New Jersey under legendary coach Sharon Pfluger and, currently, as opposing Colonial Valley Conference coaches.
“I think it can really boom in this area because there are so many schools we can touch into,” Edwards said. “We can get so many kids involved. To give back is a really great thing. I don’t know if I’d be teaching if I hadn’t had a good mentor [in Pfluger]. I’ve learned valuable life lessons through athletics, and I want to give it back to kids.”
Conant agreed, adding that she would like to see she and Edwards’s programs extend beyond the Hopewell-Ewing area.
“It’s great to build your own program, but it’s even better to build another program,” she said. “If we get as many girls interested in lacrosse as we can, the more competition, the more participation and the better it is for Ewing, for Hopewell, for everybody.”
PEAC KidSpace Coordinator and veteran West End Soccer and Ewing Little League coach Kara Forsythe, who helped Briehler choose everything from paint colors to whether they should use discs or cones on the turf, said the programs can benefit parents, as well. Promoting an enjoyment of sports before focusing on how skilled a child may or may not be is a lesson some moms and dads could stand to learn, she said.
“We don’t understand the things that we’re doing as adults,” she said. “Yes, you’re cheering, but you’re living vicariously through your kid sometimes. The most important thing that a parent can do is support their child. I don’t care if he’s doing cartwheels on the field. You clap and say, ‘That was the best cartwheel I ever saw.’”
PEAC Health & Fitness is located at 1440 Lower Ferry Road, Ewing. Phone: (609) 883-2000. On the web: peachealthfitness.com
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