Princeton soccer doing it right way
By: Bob Nuse
The Princeton University men’s soccer team will open its season tonight against Loyola (Md.), which is nothing new since they’ve started the season against the Greyhounds nine years in a row.
What will be different for the Tigers will be the venue, as they will play on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium instead of their usual home Lourie-Love Field. Both the men’s and women’s soccer teams will play their home games in the large stadium this year as construction continues on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, the future home of PU soccer.
The Princeton men will play eight home games this season, all on the FieldTurf at Princeton Stadium. The new stadium, which looks like it will be one of the premier college soccer facilities in the country, will be ready for the 2008 season. That field will be grass, going against the latest trend of putting turf facilities in place.
The new facility is named in honor of Thomas S. Roberts, a member of the Princeton class of 1985 and a former goalkeeper on the men’s soccer team. He and his wife, Kristen, were the leading donors to the project.
The facility will feature a three-sided stadium, a playing field with a natural grass surface and an adjacent practice field with an artificial surface. The practice field, to be called Plummer Field, has been separately funded by an anonymous donor. The stadium will have a 3,000-person capacity, and the playing field will be lighted for night games.
The new playing field will be named in memory of Robert Hauter Myslik, who played soccer at PU, and was a teacher and former assistant Princeton soccer coach. Myslik was killed in an automobile accident in 2003.
This is a wonderful project in so many ways. The decision to keep the field as natural turf, which has always been a highlight of watching games at Lourie-Love. While many schools now shy away from the grass in favor of the all-weather turf, nothing beats a well maintained grass field, which is something PU has always had.
And naming the playing surface after Rob Myslik is a wonderful gesture by PU. After his playing days at Princeton, the Montgomery High graduate taught at the Hun School and also coached in the Princeton Soccer Association. He touched countless lives in the classroom and on the playing field. He’s been greatly missed since his death, and will now forever live on at Princeton new soccer facility.
Princeton soccer, both the men’s team and the women’s team, has always held a special place in the local community. There are so many young people who play the sport in this area. Princeton coaches and former players manage to get involved, and the PU home games are always a special gathering place.
Next year, those people will gather in a special place. It will be a facility that can hold its own with any other in the country.

