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Half-ice hockey has recently been declared as the new standard for youth hockey. In fact, both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada have ruled that novice leagues and players are now required to institute the half-ice playing style. If you’re a parent, or a student yourself, you likely have some questions about this change.

Parental Concerns

By far, one of the most common concerns parents have voiced since these changes have been announced is: “How is this real hockey? 

This is a question best answered by the studies that prove young children (8 and under) need to focus on having fun and developing key skills. They will be learning a range of valuable skills in half-ice hockey on a rink layout that’s better suited to their pace, size, and skill level.

Some game changes will promote more play time as well, fostering interest in the sport of hockey. 

Like any sporting venue, baseball fields hold certain safety standards in order to keep players and spectators safe during games. When it comes to a baseball diamond’s safety standards, certain padding placement is needed to maintain safe gameplay.

The Outfield

Probably one of the most key areas for padding to be placed is along outfield fences. Here, padding on the walls and fences is very much a necessity in order to keep players safe as they chase stray balls.

While the MLB doesn’t yet mandate outfield padding, many agree that they should and most smaller stadiums are already going the extra mile to ensure padding is present. Far too many professionals and amateurs have collided with the outfield fences and been injured as a result of insufficient padding.

As writer Adam Moss wrote, there has been a “history of painful encounters with a non-padded wall in baseball.” When it comes to your stadium, you should see outfield fence padding as an absolute must-have for the sake of your players.

Located just west of Canada’s Capital lies the quaint and quiet village of Carp, Ontario. Anchored for years by historic Diefenbunker Museum, the small rural town has grown significantly after amalgamation with the City of Ottawa. Today the community retains its historic charm while offering residents charming restaurants, and parks along with a brewery and a vineyard.

As part of one of our most recent projects, we were commissioned by the city to design and install a unique set of stairways for use with some existing wooden bleachers inside the local arena.

The safety of a gym is only as good as the condition and configuration of the equipment inside of it. With a rash of unfortunate incidents over the past decade or so, a large cohort of facilities have been busy assessing and repairing or replacing equipment known to be the root cause a variety of safety hazards inside gymnasiums.

While much of these problems are overhead, such as ceiling-suspended basketball systems, light fixtures, and roof trusses, another large area of concern for operators are outdated dividers and partitions.

Many of these products were installed throughout the 1970s and 1980s and as one can imagine, leaps and bounds have been made in the design and development of such products since.

These existing partitions were often constructed using heavy materials and were rarely equipped with safety mechanisms such as two-key operation and sensors to detect obstructions when opening or closing.

As such, a large portion of what we do is assess the safety of these existing structures, which usually require replacement.

Working closely with our partners at Sparks@Play, headquartered in Maryland, our team was brought in to help assess the condition of some outdated retractable bleachers. Lying just outside of Washington, DC is the suburb of Annandale, Virginia and the Audrey Moore RECenter, the location where our efforts would be focused.

The community facility, managed by Fairfax County, features a number of amenities including an Olympic sized swimming pool, fitness room, pottery lab, racquetball courts, an indoor gymnasium, an outdoor skate park and outdoor tennis courts.

Inside the gymnasium was a set of outdated wooden retractable bleachers that were in need of replacement and it was our partners at Sparks@Play that were contacted by the county to get the job done.

Don’t let the words “synthetic turf” scare you away. Long gone are the days of the bright green fake grass. The synthetic turf options available today are made of high-quality products that actually look like grass.

Artificial turf is generally more economical due to a reduction in the maintenance required. This will vary depending on the frequency in which the turf is used however, synthetic turf offers many advantages in both indoor and outdoor sports facilities as outlined below.

Operating across three campuses in eastern Ontario, St. Lawrence College (SLC) is one of the province’s leading institutions when it comes to applied arts and technology. Home to roughly 7,000 full-time students, SLC specializes in programs such as applied science and computing, baccalaureate nursing, business, community services, justice studies, applied arts, health sciences as well as skilled trades and tourism.

As the institution continues to experience exponential growth, 2018 was the year that saw exciting projects come to fruition at the school’s flagship campus in Kingston. As part of the Hello Future Capital Project, renovations and a new build to the Student Life and Innovation Centre got underway after over 80 percent voted in favour of supporting the project in a student referendum.

Gymnasiums, once used solely for basketball games or gym class in public schools during the 1960s and 1970s are now becoming popular venues for social and community events. Over the decades, the large open space design of gymnasiums has been used as a makeshift setting for a large capacity banquet or an occasional awards assembly for the small local community. Fortunately, in the designs of today’s gyms, this multi-purpose concept has been embraced and modernized to accommodate an array of activities from sports and athletics to community events.

Making Your Facility a Winner

Whether you are interested in renovating and upgrading an existing gymnasium or creating a brand new one, solutions are available. With sports equipment, seating and lighting options available come in an array of designs ranging from stationary to foldable and even retractable, to allow space for other purposes. Gym divider curtains are also available to section off spaces for various events. Additionally, there is a wide selection of flooring options as well, all of which will help in making your facility a winner. 

With baseball season in our rearview and snow beginning to fly in much of the north, many of us are concentrating on finishing up football seasons or commencing various indoor sports such as basketball and volleyball.

While this is common for this time of the year, there are those who never seem to tire of baseball or preparing for the following season. With batting cages found in many outdoor environments, advancements in the design of these enclosed practice spaces are now allowing them to be moved indoors.

This was proven by our team recently when we received a phone call from Harriton High School located just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With one indoor batting cage already installed, the school was in need of a second one to keep up with demand from the big bats at the high school.

The advancement of technology is enabling us to do more than ever before imagined. We are referring to the potential available in the world of architecture and design with the use of virtual reality and augmented reality. This technology means that it is no longer necessary to stare at blueprints and concepts on paper to attain a grasp of what the finished product will look like. Instead we now have the ability to take a virtual walk-through of a project through the use of 3D rendering software and holographic display. 

Enhancing Athletic Facility Design Using VR/AR

Originally used for gaming, the technology used in head-mounted displays is now being used in architectural and design phases. In 2014 design professions began embracing the VR technology and now, new building designs, such as athletic facilities, can be virtually toured before construction begins. But it doesn’t stop there; once the building design is experienced through virtual reality, the layout and placement of everything from bleachers to exit doors to the scoreboard can be viewed using augmented reality. This is exactly what happened during the design phase of the St. Louis MLS Soccer Stadium, when a virtual and augmented reality tour revealed that the scoreboard placement would pose problems. The abilities of this technology are being embraced and becoming more available all the time.