HENNIKER, N.H. - The New England College Department of Athletics has announced the approval of a home football stadium for the 2025 season, an exciting and monumental step toward playing football on-campus in Henniker. 

For the Fall 2025 season, a natural grass field equipped with the accompanying bleachers, scoreboard, press box, goal posts, and fencing, will be game-ready for the team’s 2025 home opener on September 6th against Plymouth State University. The venue will serve as the home playing field for the team which returned after a 51-year hiatus for a pre-varsity season in 2024 and plays its first varsity season as a member of the Conference of New England (CNE) in 2025. 

“This is an integral and essential step for us as we move forward with our Football program,” says Dave Decew, Director of Athletics here at NEC. “Having the clarity of home games starting in Fall 2025 and a state-of-the-art Football venue will allow our student-athletes to thrive and prepare for the challenges in the CNE. We are thrilled with this approved facility and how it impacts our campus positively overall.” 

New England College Athletics has also unveiled plans for a proposed multi-use athletics field that would be set for completion in time for the beginning of the 2026 Fall season. The artificial turf field [seen below] would serve as the home of NEC’s football team starting in the Fall of 2026. 

This proposed multi-use facility is a big deal for NEC’s head football coach Kevin Kelly. “This multi-use facility will be a game changer for both our football program and athletics department,” said Kelly. “This coupled with the major expansion to our fitness center emphasizes NEC’s commitment to athletics.” 

This announcement comes just over one week after the College announced Phase Two of its new Athletics Center, a renovation and addition to Bridges Gymnasium that will add an expanded and reimagined Strength Lab, an additional fitness center, locker rooms, strength training areas, and sports medicine rooms. Along with Phase One that was completed this past Summer, which featured a resurfaced Turf Field and state-of-the-art equipment upgrades for the NEC fitness center, these enhancement projects are ushering in an exciting new era of New England College athletics. 

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