Jay Martin Soccer Complex
The Battling Bishop men’s and women’s soccer teams play their home games at the Jay Martin Soccer Complex, located on Park Avenue across from the Ohio Wesleyan residential campus.
Named the Jay Martin Soccer Complex in 2013 in recognition of the longtime Ohio Wesleyan men’s soccer coach, the facility is widely regarded as among the Midwest’s finest for soccer.
In addition to the lighted game field, which is still known as Roy Rike Field, the facility includes a fully-enclosed press box, aluminum bleacher seating, a building housing locker rooms and offices, a state-of-the-art irrigation system, and practice fields that can accommodate both Bishop teams simultaneously.
The Jay Martin Soccer Complex hosted the NCAA Division III men’s soccer championship in 1990 and 1998 and the NCAA Division III women’s soccer championship in 2001. Its lights have shined upon an overwhelming home-field record by the Bishop men’s team, including a 40-game winning streak during the 1991-93 seasons. That home-field advantage also helped the Bishop men post the best record in the NCAA during the 1980s, regardless of division, and helped the Bishop women’s team assemble an NCAA Division III-record 60-game winning streak during the 2001-03 seasons.
Built in 1934 as a project of the Works Progress Administration, Community Field hosted football games and track meets for Willis High School and included an adjacent baseball field and tennis courts. When Hayes High School was finished in 1962, it provided for those sports with playing facilities on the school grounds and Ohio Wesleyan purchased the complex. E. Roy Rike ’42 donated $25,000 to remove the track and upgrade the fields for intercollegiate soccer and lacrosse and intramurals. Prior to 1964, Ohio Wesleyan home games were played at South Field, which was located on Henry Street south of Selby Field.
The facility also served as home of the Bishop men’s lacrosse team from 1965 to 1985, and as home of the women’s lacrosse team from 2004-07.
Action at Jay Martin Soccer Complex
