Rush Announces New Rush Home

Hometown Sports Management and Virginia Rush Soccer announced a partnership today that includes converting the all-grass Sportsplex stadium field to quality synthetic turf developed and installed by Sportexe. Hometown Sports Management assumed management of the Virginia Beach Sportsplex in cooperation with the city of Virginia Beach earlier this year.

Rush Soccer will call the new Sportsplex home and become partners in the development of the Sportsplex as the center of athletics in Virginia Beach and beyond. The Rush is a regional entity that formed when three local clubs merged with Virginia Beach Soccer Club. There are 24 Rush Soccer clubs in the US.

The Virginia Rush is the only soccer club in southeastern Virginia to have developmental, advanced, competitive, and adult and many other programs under one club. The club is the only club in southeastern Virginia to be a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy and Elite Club National League, the top two national-level leagues in the country. The club currently has 4,000 players participating in various programs.

'This is the foundation for the Rush Home, an abitious project we have been working on since our inception,' said David Dengerink, President and Technical Director of Virginia Rush. 'After pursuing every opportunity, we are very pleased to partner with Hometown Sports Management in developing the Sportsplex into a first-class youth sports facility. The size and quality of the surface enables the club to improve the training environment and believe this will be a great step for soccer and sports in this community.'

Virginia Rush was able to enter into the agreement with the support of TowneBank and ten individuals who stepped forward to lend their financial support to augment the Rush Home Fee the club has collected over the years. This support, combined with the Rush Home Fee and the relocation of the Rush office space to the Sporsplex this summer will allow Rush to provide more service without increasing fees.

In addition to Bishop Catholic High School, the Sportsplex turf will provide Rush members use of the only two synthetic surfaces in the city. 'This addition triples our available training space. We saw great improvement in our training environment when we moved to Catholic High School and expect even more improvement this fall,' said Jay Hoffman, Academy Director of Coaching for the Virginia Rush.

'The Sportsplex is already a multi-sport facility, which we look forward to continuing, providing an athletic outlet for the youth of the city. We are interested in meeting with any athletic club in the city that is in need of field space or facility use.' said Dengerink. 'The potential to add more fields in the near future means we will have the space to continue our growth while providing first class training. The Rush would like to issue an open invitation to any organization interested in joining us in building one of the top youth athletic facilities in the country.'

Sportexe turf is the underfoot of prestigious teams like the New Orleans Saints, the Baltimore Ravens, University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Alabama, St. Mary's University and many other teams and sports facilities around the globe. Over the past 20 years, Sportexe has earned an unsurpassed reputation for producing and servicing high-performance synthetic turf systems for every level of competition.

Established in 1989, Sportexe is the oldest synthetic turf company in the United States. Sportexe manufactures its own synthetic turf products, and they are installed by trained and certified Sportexe installation teams. Sportexe has installed approximately 400 full-sized athletic fields in North America. The University of Arkansas, M&T Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens and the Superdome in New Orleans have a Sportexe field. Currently, the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Jets (indoor and outdoor) and the Buffalo Bills use Sportexe in their practice facilities.

The Sportplex turf will be PowerBlade HP 2.0SR and is designed specifically for faster gameplay and has passed the testing requirements to qualify as a FIFA 1-Star surface. It contains a specially engineered sand/rubber ratio, which makes for a denser surface, enhancing speed and ensuring consistent ball roll. Monofilament lasts longer and plays more like natural grass. Extremely soft, yet durable with no post-fibrillation (fiber breakdown). It has a two-tone fiber which provides a more natural-looking field.