The way things are going in the Northern Region, grass-stained football jerseys and muddy cleats may become a thing of the past. Currently, six Northern Region schools have synthetic turf fields installed in their stadiums and, with more planned, the days of grass may be numbered. “I don’t know how you can lose with it,” said West Springfield director of student activities Tim O’Reilly, whose school is one of three in Fairfax County to use turf.
The fields employ a monofilament fiber to recreate grass blades, with a mixture of sand and rubber below.
“It’s not even comparable to regular grass,” said Darren Gill director of marketing for Montreal-based FieldTurf International, which has installed 33 turf fields in Virginia, including West Springfield, Fairfax, George Mason High School and Episcopal (Alexandria). “When you have schools that are landlocked, the grass fields become overused. With the turf, you have a 24/7 ability where the fields are playable year round. There is little maintenance required, reducing time of the people taking care of the fields. There are less headaches scheduling and there is the safety component.”
“It’s not even comparable to regular grass,” said Darren Gill director of marketing for Montreal-based FieldTurf International, which has installed 33 turf fields in Virginia, including West Springfield, Fairfax, George Mason High School and Episcopal (Alexandria). “When you have schools that are landlocked, the grass fields become overused. With the turf, you have a 24/7 ability where the fields are playable year round. There is little maintenance required, reducing time of the people taking care of the fields. There are less headaches scheduling and there is the safety component.”
Herndon High’s varsity football team played on turf in a win at Fairfax High School on Oct. 5. Also, the Herndon non-varsity squad played at Yorktown’s new turf field earlier this season as well. Hornets coach Joe Sheaffer likes the fact that a number of schools have gone to turf fields.
“It’s a nice deal, it really is,” said Sheaffer. “It doesn’t cause a lot of injuries and is real soft. The couple times we’ve played on turf we haven’t seen injuries. Our Bermuda [grass field at Herndon] is nice, no doubt. But [school sports teams] play a lot on it, and it doesn’t get a chance to rest. …[A turf field] would give us more practice space availability.”
“It’s a nice deal, it really is,” said Sheaffer. “It doesn’t cause a lot of injuries and is real soft. The couple times we’ve played on turf we haven’t seen injuries. Our Bermuda [grass field at Herndon] is nice, no doubt. But [school sports teams] play a lot on it, and it doesn’t get a chance to rest. …[A turf field] would give us more practice space availability.”
Vienna’s Madison High School is the most recent to install a turf field at its football stadium.
“It’s a God-send for us because we have [little] land here [at the school],” said Madison head football coach Gordon Leib. “There are no turf burns, it’s very soft. It takes three inches of rain an hour. And to top it off, it looks beautiful.”
“It’s a God-send for us because we have [little] land here [at the school],” said Madison head football coach Gordon Leib. “There are no turf burns, it’s very soft. It takes three inches of rain an hour. And to top it off, it looks beautiful.”
Other local coaches who have played on the new turf fields agree.
“It’s not like the old astro-turf that was basically like a parking lot,” said Langley head football coach John Howerton.
Turf fields have become ideal for high schools with smaller campuses and limited playing space. Traditionally, stadium fields are reserved for game day, while daily practice is conducted on other fields. With the durability of the turf, teams are now able to practice on the same field.
“In effect, you are building multiple fields in one,” said Fairfax director of student activities Tom Gordon.
OF THE 30 NORTHERN Region schools, however, only 20 percent of school stadiums have made the switch. With such praise heaped on the synthetic grass by those who have it, why wouldn’t every school be lining up to replace their natural fields? It all comes down to money.
The South Lakes High football team does not play on a new turf field. However, they have a new Bermuda field, which is still just a few years old. South Lakes coach John Ellenberger said a new turf field is probably too expensive for the Reston school.
“We were just happy to get Bermuda grass a couple years ago,” said Ellenberger, who said getting a new turf field could cost about $800,000. “In an idea world, we’d have turf because you don’t have to worry about its playability or maintaining it. We don’t have that kind of money. We’re real happy with Bermuda.”
Added Centreville director of student activities Jimmy Sanabria, “For us, we can’t afford it. We just can’t. Not with sustaining the level of buying uniforms, and making the place look nice.”
Added Centreville director of student activities Jimmy Sanabria, “For us, we can’t afford it. We just can’t. Not with sustaining the level of buying uniforms, and making the place look nice.”
According to O’Reilly, the West Springfield project cost 1.1 million dollars. Without assistance from Fairfax County, West Springfield worked with the South County Youth Club to raise the funds. Madison received help from their youth sports organizations and also received a proffer of money from construction at Tysons Corner.
“It just depends on the amount of money that the youth leagues have,” said Sanabria.
Because of the durability of the field, the ability to play year-round and the lighting available on high school fields, installing the turf at local high schools has become a ideal situation for youth leagues. When high schools aren’t using the fields, the youth leagues are taking advantage of the turf. For this reason, the City of Fairfax and Arlington County put up the money to install the fields at Fairfax, Wakefield, Washington-Lee and Yorktown.
Because of the durability of the field, the ability to play year-round and the lighting available on high school fields, installing the turf at local high schools has become a ideal situation for youth leagues. When high schools aren’t using the fields, the youth leagues are taking advantage of the turf. For this reason, the City of Fairfax and Arlington County put up the money to install the fields at Fairfax, Wakefield, Washington-Lee and Yorktown.
“When the high schools aren’t on it, the youth leagues are,” said Sanabria. “One place, one community. We are hoping that Fairfax County sees the substantial advantage to the kids of the community itself. They have to look at it in that respect.”
OAKTON DIRECTOR of student activities, Phil Levine, believes that turf fields are ideal for area high schools, but not on the stadium fields.
“I would rather put the turf fields on my practice fields, where you can’t keep the fields in good shape because of the uses,” he said. “On a stadium field, where you are just playing games and there is nobody on it. I would rather have the real grass. The resistance that you get is that your practice fields aren’t lit up and you are trying to light them up to be used.”
The Oakton athletic boosters, along with the school itself, raised funds to install Patriot Bermuda grass on all of Oakton’s fields at a installation cost of nearly 250,000 dollars.
“The Patriot Bermuda grass, for a stadium field, if you can maintain it, for me personally, I would rather have that,” said Levine.
The time it takes to maintain the fields at Oakton is consuming. Teaming with field contractors Gameday, Levine said that hours each day are spent on field maintenance.
“We are on the stadium fields on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we are on the practice fields, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” he said. “That is the way we are doing it. Each field takes about an hour and a half to two hours to mow if you are going to do it the right way. Keeping the Patriot Bermuda, the amount of maintenance is tremendous.”
Apart from the workload of maintaining the Bermuda fields, synthetic turf do not have to be fertilized or watered.
“We are going to a water shortage. With a turf field, we would be saving money for the county because we wouldn’t be watering,” said Levine.
Replacing the practice fields at Oakton, according to Levine, would provide multiple open fields for the community, especially in the spring.
“In the spring, with the amount of soccer and lacrosse games that are on your fields, you aren’t going to get much youth usage on your field because they are taking up all the games, but when they are playing, your practice fields are open,” he said. “You have more time available on our practice fields.”
ACCORDING TO LEVINE, Oakton is currently in the process of talking about the possibility of turf, as is Sanabria and McLean director of student activities Tom Herman. Currently, all three schools do not have plans to install turf.
“We are constantly keeping our doors open,” he said. “I’m sure that we are going to be one of the last schools probably. That is my thinking.”
When asked if a realistic goal would be for all Northern Region schools to have turf fields by 2017, Sanabria replied, “I think that [if every school gets a field] in 10 years, we are about ten years too late.”
When asked if a realistic goal would be for all Northern Region schools to have turf fields by 2017, Sanabria replied, “I think that [if every school gets a field] in 10 years, we are about ten years too late.”
Paul Frommelt
November 1, 2007
November 1, 2007
Source: The Connection Newspapers, Virginia
