​The newly refurbished synthetic turf surface of John T. DeBarber Memorial Field is seen on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Seymour. (Kevin Roberts/Hearst Connecticut Media)
The Seymour football, girls soccer and boys soccer programs all call John T. DeBarber Memorial Field home, and their synthetic turf surface got spruced up during the summer.On Saturday morning, the Seymour and Holy Cross football teams scrimmaged on the new surface. “Now that it’s done, you realize how porous it was prior,” said Jamie Burns, a Seymour assistant football coach who is also a commissioner on the town’s Parks and Recreation board. “You’re like ‘oh my God, there’s no divots, there’s no ripped up’, you know when the number starts ripping up or the seams. That’s a big upgrade.”Burns said an overage on COVID funds were put back into the budget for the turf. The good news this time around for Seymour was it was just replacement of the turf and not a conversion from natural grass to turf, like it was when the original surface was changed in 2015.”In 2015, when we first did it, we didn’t play our first home game until week six, so it’s nice that we could do it and get it done,” Burns said.The girls soccer team scrimmaged Fairfield Warde on Thursday, and head coach Tom Cunningham and his team were happy to be out there.”The new turf is wonderful. I love the layout. The surface is very good,” Cunningham wrote in a text. “I think it is important for the safety of our athletes that it was done.”The first game on the refurbished turf is Seymour girls soccer against Torrington on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m. Football hosts Ansonia on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. Boys soccer takes on Platt in a nonconference game on Friday, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.This article originally published at Seymour High teams return to refurbished turf at DeBarber Field.