Instead of a sign on the gates saying the facility was closed,the Nashua South girls lacrosse team had a more welcoming messge on the Stellos Stadium scoreboard on Wednesday as the facility was re-opened with a brand new field. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras was waiting on Wednesday afternoon for the Nashua South High School girls lacrosse players when they emerged from the locker room after arriving at Stellos Stadium.

Her message?

Welcome home.

“It’s been a long trip since Oct. 2,” Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras said, referring to the day when the Stellos gates were locked for the rest of the fall season due to safety concerns about playing on the badly worn Motta Field turf. “I’ve been like a kid on Christmas Eve all day. The kids have been also, the coaches have been also.

“I was here before anybody walked on the field just to see the kids reactions when they touched it. Not just seeing it, but putting their feet on it, feeling how soft it feels, how different it feels .As we know, the previous surface was in pretty tough repair.

“Just the looks on their faces, a couple of the girls, and it was ‘Well?’ ‘I love it!’.”

“We’ve been excited to get on this turf,” said Panther Maren Lowell, who scored six goals – including her 100th career tally – in South’s 19-7 win over Salem. “Especially since we’ve been playing here since like we were six. It was great seeing the brand new turf and we’re really lucky to be the first ones out here.”

And the turf?

“It was good,” Lowell said. “It was nice and squishy, it wasn’t like bricks.”

O’Donnell couldn’t wait to get back to Stellos.

“Very exciting, I’ve been looking forward to this since it was closed,” she said. “That was disappointing, everyone was waiting for it to be opened. To finally be the first people to step on the field was great, great to break it in.

“It just felt great being back at Stellos, finally. The turf was great, there’s no patches where you might roll an ankle or something.”

Which is why the facility was shut down in the first place, the turf likely a couple of years beyond it’s life span.

Gingras has come to the stadium every day since work that began back in late November into December continued after the snow melted away in early March. The company doing the work, R.A.D. Sports out of Rockland, Mass., impressed all with what they’ve done with the turf replacement.

“You should’ve seen them do everything,” James Mulvey, the stadium’s Park-Recreation caretaker said. “It was impressive.”

“They told me on Friday they needed two more days. They’ve been out here, working their tails off. Today was just a fine tune, cleanup day. They drove out of here at quarter to 3 because they knew we were playing.”

There are some other changes besides the new turf. For one, the bushes that surrounded two thirds of the field have been removed in lieu of a chain link fence with a yellow topper.

“Personally I absolutely love this fence,” Gingras said. “I think it’ll be good for kids, it’ll be good for lacrosse and more so for soccer to keep the balls inside the turf. They won’t have to crawl under the bleachers anymore looking for their soccer balls. The one or two weeks out of the year the firebushes looked beautiful, we’ll miss that. But not having to clean the bushes, deal with the wasp and hornets nests, we won’t miss that.”

“I liked the bushes,” Lowell said, “but you don’t have to chase the balls as far.”

The fence has a yellow topper so it’s highly visible for the players for safety purposes.

“It’s not a new stadium, it’s just maintenance that needed to take place,” Gingras said. “It does (feel new). There’ve been a lot of repairs done.”

Gingras said even the light bulbs on the stadium lights will be replaced, among other things.

“It’s just if we’re going to do this, let’s just keep going and get it done right.”

Nashua South’s Maren Lowell, in white, takes off with the bal vs.the Salem defense on the new Stellos Stadium field turf during Wednesday’s season opener, the first game played at Stellos since it was shut down Oct. 2 due to safety concerns. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The fall is a little busier at Stellos than the spring because three sports are played there by Nashua North, South and Bishop Guertin: Boys and girls soccer, girls field hockey, and, of course, football. Lowell and O’Donnell both played field hockey and Stellos was shut down with about two weeks to go in their regular season.

“It was pretty tough, obviously, it’s not as much fun playing field hockey on the grass,” Lowell said. “It wasn’t very fun without the turf.”

Panthers field hockey and girls lacrosse coach Ciki McIntire was as thrilled as the players to be back.

“I didn’t want to believe it until we were actually here warming up,” McIntire said. “But it was awesome. The field looks great. It feels great, the girls were so excited to be the first game. We have a lot of multi-sport athletes, so a lot of them lost their fall here. So I think it just really meant a lot for them to be on the turf today.”

Lacrosse is the only sport played at Stellos in the spring, and Nashua North and South boys teams opened on Monday but played at the school fields while the finishing work at Stellos was done. The R.A.D. workers, Gingras said, will make their return in the next day or two to do some finishing touches. Today it will be the North girls’ turn at 4 p.m. vs. Dover.

“We have a true home game outside,” Gingras said. “Those games were great. But it’s definitely nice to be back.”

“What better day,” McIntire said, “then Opening Day.

“Now we feel like we’re home.”