DUXBURY — Oct. 7, 2026 — The Duxbury School Committee voted 5-0 Wednesday to back Duxbury Youth Soccer’s request for $372,000 in Community Preservation Act funding to restore the Ray Coppens Field Complex, a heavily used grass complex whose uneven surface the group called a safety hazard. The group plans to submit the request to the town’s Community Preservation Committee in about a week.
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The committee’s vote is an endorsement, not an appropriation. Ken LaRose, treasurer of the Duxbury Youth Soccer Association’s executive committee board, said the group was meeting with its key stakeholders before filing for Community Preservation funding, looking for alignment, feedback or a stop sign from the committee if it objected.
The group’s president, James Chandler, said more than 900 children from pre-K through eighth grade are signed up. About 350 fifth- through eighth-graders play travel games and practice on the Ray Coppens fields, and about 300 pre-K and kindergarten players use the complex for mini soccer.
LaRose said years of heavy use have left the surface so uneven that coaches hold their breath watching players run, for fear of a hidden depression.
It’s borderline unsafe, primarily because of how uneven the surface is.
— Ken LaRose, Duxbury Youth Soccer Treasurer 8:20
The project covers about 177,000 square feet. The plan is to strip the grass, re-soil and laser-grade the fields, address the irrigation and re-sod, producing a new playing surface. A proposal the group commissioned last May priced the work at $336,000; a contingency for cost escalation, added on advice the group received, brings the request to $372,000. The group also committed to raise at least $12,000 a year for maintenance beyond the DPW’s general upkeep, and expects six to eight years of use before the fields need work again.
Work would ideally begin around July 1, after the school year. The fields would close for the summer and reopen for school use, including recess, but soccer would stay off them for a full year while the sod takes hold. The group plans to rent fields in neighboring communities and seek time on the high school’s artificial turf.
Asked whether a possible limit on town water for lawns could affect the project, LaRose said the irrigation draws from a well, which was confirmed in the room, and called lighting a possible later phase. Member Jenna Wechsler said uneven fields are a safety concern for athletes, and another thanked the group for laying out a project the member described as one piece of a much larger issue for the town.
