Quinn Lafferty, a captain for the men's club rugby team, suffered a severe knee injury while playing on the Bluff Road fields over a year ago.
Lafferty is a fourth-year nursing student and still feels the effects of his injury.
“Last year, I blew out my knee,” Lafferty said. “Tore my ACL, had deep bone bruises, tore my meniscus and sprained everything else. It was horrible. I still haven’t fully recovered since and I deal with it every day.”
The fields are home to USC's growing list of outdoor club sports, including lacrosse, soccer, rugby and field hockey. The fields, which sit at the corner of Bluff and National Guard Road near Williams-Brice Stadium, were formerly used by South Carolina football until recent facility upgrades. They're maintained by the University of South Carolina Athletics Department and USC Campus Recreation.
Despite the high number of clubs that use the fields, athletes claim they're forced to play on an uneven surface that features holes, divots and sandpits, putting them at a greater risk of injury. Some have even abandoned the fields altogether, opting for local high schools or other on-campus fields.
"It's a matter of time before one of us has a season-ending injury," fourth-year political science student and women's lacrosse club president Karlyn Antolini said. "I hate to say it, but it is. The fields are absolutely awful. I literally don't know how else to put it. It's an embarrassment to have schools come to us and play."
What's gone wrong with the fields
Lafferty hasn't been alone. Several of his teammates have suffered similar injuries. Lafferty said the injuries have negatively impacted the club's morale, as players know they're at a higher risk of injury while using the fields.
“It brutalizes the team,” Lafferty said. “Some key guys, quality guys that we need and care about. It’s messing not just with their rugby career, but messing with their psyche, too. It’s something that’s really important to me. When people go down with injuries that take them out of their sport, it’s really their only release sometimes.”
Gunnar Wilson is an offensive coordinator and former player for the men's lacrosse club. Wilson noticed the poor field quality immediately upon transferring to USC in 2021, and it wouldn't take long for him to suffer a debilitating injury.
“My junior year, I started my injury out here,” Wilson said. “Hit a divot in one of the holes, messed my knee up, was kind of hurting. The next week, I tore my ACL, LCL and meniscus. Multiple other friends, people tearing ACLs, spraining them, out for the year, which really sucks as a college student. This is a big part of these guys' experiences.”
Many athletes said the field is filled with holes and uneven patches of grass. Second-year finance and marketing student Evan Saholsky said men's club soccer often switches sides of the field during practice due to holes and divots on the playing surface.
"There's a lot of dry patches, but there's also a lot of potholes," Saholsky said. "Some of them are filled in by sand, but since you're playing on that uneven surface, you kind of have to think about where you step more often. I've personally rolled my ankle plenty of times playing on that field. My ankle has been sprained a couple of times, and playing on that field, it doesn't help at all."
Saholsky, who suffered an ankle injury while playing on the fields earlier in his career, said the uneven surface is more hazardous to soccer players, as the sport requires precision and cutting.
"Early last year, I decided to play without my brace," Saholsky said. "The first day I did that, I sprained it within 30 minutes of playing. I know a lot of other guys will get really sore afterwards because they're playing on an uneven surface ... It will hurt a lot on their knees and hips."
The fields often flood during high-rain days, forcing games and practices to be moved or canceled. The lack of consistent practice times make it hard for clubs to compete against other schools. Men's lacrosse club head coach Peter Candela said the rescheduled practices sometimes don't include trainers, preventing the club from going full-contact.
"Sometimes they cut practice from us because the fields are too wet," Candela said. "You can't really run a competitive team on one practice a week."
Candela's team has faced lighting issues during games at the fields.
"The lights is a safety issue," Candela said. "Coming out here and teams weren't able to see the ball because we had like 8-10 lights out, it's pretty bad."
Second-year biochemistry student Georgia Christensen plays for club field hockey. Field hockey's unique playing dimensions make it different from other sports. But the out of bounds lines on the fields at Bluff Road can be difficult to identify, causing confusion amongst players.
"The lines we play (are) different from the lines soccer plays," Christensen said. "It's different from the lines lacrosse plays and different that rugby plays. Through all of it getting roughed up on the fields, you can barely see them. It's hard to follow."
The fields create even more problems for fans. The clubs use the few sections of bleachers, forcing fans to stand for hours during games.
"There's not really a great spot for the fans to sit," Christensen said. "Even then, you're walking off the field with your shoes all muddy and sandy."
The issues don't stop there. The fields only have one bathroom that, according to Christensen, features little privacy and isn't regularly cleaned. Christensen said she and her teammates go across the street for bathroom breaks before or during games.
"We've got one bathroom, it's not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant," Candela said. "We've had grandparents that've had to go down the road to be able to go to the bathroom because they're in wheelchairs."
Lacrosse clubs face more challenges
Fourth-year exercise science student Ashtin Reich has played for the men's lacrosse club for the past three years. As the club's treasurer, Reich is responsible for coordinating the team's practice times and scheduling games with other schools. Reich said he's had trouble scheduling games for the club because of the poor condition of the fields.
"We're consistently renting fields because teams refuse to play us," Reich said. "That happened this year, my senior year. Virginia Tech refused to play here, so they're not on our schedule this season. Liberty refused to play us at home, at this field, so we had to rent River Bluff High School. It's been a consistent trend over the years, causing a multitude of issues."
The changes put even more stress on the club financially, as it's forced to pay to use other local fields and additional travel issues by visiting schools.
"That costs out of our pocket, too," Candela said. "We have to be changing locations on other teams. They have to bus out there now instead of where they're staying around here, close to downtown."
Candela said he's taken a hands-off approach when dealing with the fields despite his role as head coach.
"I try to stay out of it as much as I can," Candela said. "I try to have our parents get involved because a lot of times they're the ones footing the bill for school and stuff like that. If we've got kids paying $50,000 a year, they should be able to have two fields set up for us. I've got 50 kids out here, so do the math. Kids are coming here for lacrosse too."
Antolini helped restart the women's lacrosse club in the fall of 2022 after it received a five-year ban due to a hazing incident in 2017.
Antolini, who also serves as the club's head coach, said she received little support from the university while relaunching the club. Club sports teams receive financial assistance from the university through the Sports Club Executive Board. Antolini believes the university didn't financially support the club due to the hazing incident.
"It's just me and my vice president (third-year risk management and insurance student Elinor Brady) trying to do this all by ourselves," Antolini said. "We've never had any help with anything, really. It's all us. It's a completely student-run organization. We've never gotten a dollar from the school. When we started up, all of our money was from GoFundMe because there was no way for us to get any other money."
The Daily Gamecock reached out to campus recreation, but did not receive a comment.
“USC Campus Recreation actively partners with the athletic department to maintain the fields and wants to ensure the best experience possible," University Spokesperson Collyn Taylor said in a statement. "Field conditions can change for a variety of different reasons and feedback on what USC can do to improve their services is always welcome. USC has started a master planning process that includes plans to increase the number of recreational fields around campus.”
While men's lacrosse still practices on the fields, women's lacrosse has completely abandoned them altogether. Antolini rescheduled the club's Feb. 15 home game against Clemson after seeing the weekend weather forecast.
"Our home games would be on those fields, we just typically try not to use them," Antolini said.
Antolini said she didn't realize how poor the fields at USC were until she visited the facilities at other schools. She said it is affecting her club's ability to compete at the highest level.
"I can see how much support that other schools get from their universities even though they're a club sport," Antolini said. "Seeing how much care goes into them, I do think they have so much more of a program that it puts them in a better advantage."
Hope for the future
Victor, a club field hockey athlete, believes a turf field would require less maintenance from the university and solve most of the problems. Victor said athletes could work out a solution with the school so every outdoor club sport could use the space.
"Turf fields, because every sport that plays there can play on turf," Victor said. "Even if they just built one and then the time was split differently, I think people would be willing to change their schedules in order to have a better and safer field."
Athletes are still moving forward with their respective seasons despite the poor playing conditions at Bluff Road. Christensen and second-year biology student Delaney Victor said they've helped implement team bonding activities to keep spirits high while they push for change behind the scenes.
"Even through this trouble, we're good about keeping our team morale high," Christensen said. "There's no one who's like, 'I'm not coming to practice today because I don't want to play on those fields.' We try our best to work around it and make it the best experience possible."