Lacrosse nets are set up March 27, 2024, at HERO Sportsplex field at Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. The sportplex hosts its inaugural event March 30 when 18 youth lacrosse teams compete in the Farm City Face Off.

HERMISTON — The HERO Sportsplex at EOTEC will hold its first official event Saturday, March 30, when 18 youth lacrosse teams take over the six fields at the complex for the Farm City Face Off.

“We are truly excited about it,” said Josh Burns, who is part of the Hermiston Oregon Sportsplex committee. “We want it to be used for 7-on-7 football, soccer, flag football and lacrosse. This just happens to be the first event.”

The event is a couple of years in the making.

While the city owns the land the complex sits on, the HEROS committee leased the land for construction, then gave it back to the city.

The committee raised the money for the complex, and the lights for two fields, but the Hermiston Parks and Recreation Department maintains the facility.

“We did this in a phased approach because we knew we wouldn’t be able to raise all the funds immediately,” Burns said. The fields are ready to be used. There are lights for two of the fields, and we are raising money to light the other four fields.”

That cost is around $1 million, which when added to the money raised and spent, comes to roughly $3 million.

“There have been six or seven of us on the committee, but the outpouring of support from the community has been amazing,” Burns said. “In two years, we have pulled together nearly $2 million, which has been amazing. We hope to have the lights done in the next year. Our vision for that is that there is nowhere in our area that is lit for year-round use. We think we will get a lot more use out of it.”

The six fields are regulation-size football fields, but can accommodate several sports. The surface is natural grass, and there is an irrigation system to keep the fields lush and green. The committee also purchased a lawn mower for the city to use.

“Part of our philosophy is, if we purchase, we give it back to the Hermiston community,” Burns said. “We bought a robot field painter. It’s programmed with the field dimensions. We just have to put paint in it and it goes to work.”

EOTEC General Manager Al Davis said the robot is impressive.

“It painted two fields in less than an hour,” he said.

Programs pay a fee to use the complex, which is locked and secured at night. The city works with programs to cut down on costs if they are willing to do part of the setup for their events.

For the March 30 tournament, the Hermiston Youth Lacrosse program is doing a lot of the setup.

The fields saw action last August when the Umatilla County Fair used the facility for parking.

“There was minimal damage to the grass,” Burns said. “The fair hired a parking contractor and they took good care of it.”

There was a soft rollout a few weeks ago with local lacrosse teams, but March 30 will mark the first scheduled event.

The one-day tournament, which will have teams from Hermiston, the Tri-Cities, Yakima and Burns, begins at 9 a.m.

“It gives us a one-day kickoff to make sure we have everything right from a tournament standpoint,” Burns said.

There will be food vendors at the tournament, and restrooms will be available.

There is a $5 fee for parking, but the money goes back into the facility to help with maintenance costs. Parking permits are available for purchase online through the Parks and Recreation Department.

The complex is drawing interest. There is a soccer tournament in a couple of weeks, a lacrosse camp for July, and a 7-on-7 tournament is in the works for the fall.

“The thing about Hermiston is we are in the middle of nowhere,” Davis said, “and in the middle of everything.”