Mustangs upgrade field from grass to turf

Fort Rouge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2023 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Let’s go back in time, almost 25 years, circa 1999… Mud flies from the running back’s cleats as he dashes across the field with the ball, muddy blue jerseys chase him but cannot match his speed. One defender has taken a good angle and meets the red-jerseyed runner at the goal line, the two of them collide and slide through the mud into the end zone.

This was a common sight after a rainy night at a St. Vital Mustangs football game on the club}s old field at the Maple Grove Rugby Park.

That field is now turf, after over $2 million and many hours of work by the Mustangs’ board of directors, volunteers and construction workers — and it is a masterpiece of a playing surface. Shared with the Winnipeg Rifles junior football club, the field’s end zones proudly display the Rifles name at one end and Mustangs at the other.

The Mustangs Football club, established in 1948 by brothers Art and Wally McOuat, draws players from across St. Vital, St. Boniface, Fort Rouge and other parts of the city. Its teams played on a field in Memorial Park, near Glenlawn Collegiate at the corner of Fermor Avenue and St. Mary’s Road until the end of the 1994 season and relocated for the 1995 season when George Wilson was president. Word around the campfire was that residents of the area where tired of the lights and noise from the field.

The club found a spot near the Maple Grove Rugby Park, down near the Perimeter Highway at the corner of St. Mary’s and Frobisher Road. After building a clubhouse, it has been there ever since. Red helmets top the posts lining the winding driveway to the clubhouse. (I believe it was long-time equipment manager Mark Turner who initiated that project.)

Two main football fields nestle alongside the many rugby fields, a practice field and a game field, and they held up for many years, although when there was excessive rain the constant wear and tear of cleats would rip up the grass. This led to the board deciding to upgrade the game field to turf.

Current Mustangs president Craig Bachynski described with pride the new field, which includes:

“Existing infrastructure such as modern game lights, a clubhouse with four dressing rooms, upper social and viewing halls, a press box and film tower, and dedicated hot food canteen and merchandise sales kiosks.”

The Mustangs program supports over 500 men, women, boys, and girls playing tackle football, and over 1,500 more boys and girls playing flag football. The facility also hosts the Winnipeg Rifles and the Winnipeg Fearless women’s program.

“The turf project had been in the works for about four years, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bachynski explained. “All three levels of government are active supporters, with private donor support as well.”

More information regarding the St. Vital Mustangs can be found at www.mustangsfootball.ca