Hampshire Park Opens for Lacrosse Leagues

Loudoun parks department administrators and board members recently opened a new park in Ashburn that provide two lacrosse fields on a 9.5-acre site at 21315 Smith Switch Road, adjacent to the W&OD Trail.

“This is exactly what we need here in Broad Run,” said Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run), thanking Diane Ryburn, director of the Loudoun Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, for leading an agency with big challenges in on of the country’s fastest-growing counties. “They have a big challenge with all the young people here.”

Michael Capretti, the local developer who proffered the park, joked that “these fields are here for one reason: Because my daughter said, ‘Daddy, why can’t you build me some lacrosse fields?’”

Ryburn pointed out that Capretti led the group that set more strict standards for county park facilities, including standards that enabled the fields Hampshire to drain even though they are flat. The work on parks standards, she said “will allow us to build other facilities properly the first time.”

Hampshire Park, a park proffered with the Stonegate community, was named after the former Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad that operated along the W&OD. Besides the irrigated lacrosse fields, the site includes a concession stand, bathrooms, meeting space, parking and access to the W&OD trail.

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