Ryan Emilio Orangeville's long awaited year-round lacrosse facility is finally ready to go.

Announced earlier this spring, the renovations to the dome at ACTS are complete and according to Ryan Emilio, the facilities lacrosse co-ordinatior, it's something long overdue in the area.

One of only a few year-round indoor surfaces available to lacrosse in Ontario, Emilio points to the recent success of the Six Nations lacrosse program illustrating what potential benefits will come with the new facility.

Originally conceived for tennis, the 24,000 sq ft facility now features a professional grade artificial turf system that is currently configured with field lacrosse markings but plans are in the works for other sports, in particular indoor soccer.

Currently there are approximately 100 players registered to take part in the indoor lacrosse league slated to start in early October and Emilio hopes to expand from a 10 week program to possibly 14 weeks in the second session.

No stanger to the local lacrosse scene, Emilio has worked his way up through the Northmen system playing Junior A with the organization and most recently, assuming the role of assistant coach on the Junior B squad and playing field lacrosse with Brock University.

"Until now, we have been concentrating on building locally but now that we are rolling, we hoping to draw interest by spreading the word of what we are doing here to surrounding communities," says Emilio. He goes on to point out the enormous potential that exists with such a facility and they have had a few people show interest in possibly staging camps in the new year in addition to the inhouse leagues, training and skills development currently envisioned. "But for now," say Emilio, "our plans are to go slow and cautious, gauge the needs of the market and adapt our programs and facilities to that."