Vermont made

South Burlington honored as state's Sports Illustrated Sportstown

By Andrew Schulman

To take the pulse of the City of South Burlington, Vt., and understand why it was chosen as a Sports Illustrated Sportstown, all you need to do is visit Dorsett Park on a spring, summer or fall evening.

“Nine months out of the year, you’ll find hundreds of kids, adults and seniors out every evening, playing organized sports, just strolling around or playing catch,” said Tom Hubbard, South Burlington’s Director of Recreation. “Dorsett Park is a central meeting point and a showcase for this entire community.”

The 210-acre park, split into two sections, offers residents numerous recreation options. It currently has two soccer fields, one regulation and two youth baseball fields, two tennis courts and an indoor ice arena. The park also features areas used for cross country skiing, nature walks and the community gardens.

And while Dorsett is a throwback to the central gathering places of the past, South Burlington’s 16,000 residents have other recreational areas at their fingertips. The city’s second-largest facility, the 100-acre Red Rocks Park, is located on Shelburne Bay. Red Rocks is mostly wooded but features 700 feet of public beach and several miles of trails for hiking, snow shoeing and cross country skiing. In addition, five other neighborhood parks give residents the chance to play sports and enjoy the outdoors near their homes.

As the city explores the possibility of building a free-standing community center to meet the ever-growing needs of its citizens, those citizens are able to use local school facilities for indoor recreation on evenings, weekends and during the summer, thanks to a partnership with the local school district.

“We have many partners -- including the South Burlington School District and local youth sports organizations -- that give us more flexibility and allow us to offer a wider variety of activities,” said Hubbard.

Another key partner is the group that operates the Cairns Recreational Ice Arena Complex. The facility, located in Dorsett Park, features two ice surfaces and was built in 1995 through a public-private partnership that has become a model for all of New England.

In addition to the fields, rinks and natural beauty of South Burlington’s backdrop, the city’s Recreation Department offers a variety of sports options for all ages and ability levels -- more than 200 programs annually. Through the Department and its partners, South Burlingtonites can take part in tennis, golf, swimming, baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse and hockey, just to name a few.

But no matter what sports and facilities are available, Dorsett Park will always be South Burlington’s top sports area, as people gather to play sports and simply catch up. And now, as people gather and play sports throughout the state of Vermont, they will look to South Burlington as a shining example of a Sports Illustrated Sportstown.