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A suburban Milwaukee high school is replacing its natural grass gridiron football field with synthetic turf at a cost of USD$687,000.
Greendale High School's field of seams begins to take shape
$689,000 synthetic turf surface should be ready in August
By JULIE BECKER
jbecker@cninow.com
Posted: July 7, 2008
Regardless of which team is playing, what the sport is or who wins, area athletes will have a whole new experience on Greendale High School’s turf this fall.
ProGrass LLC broke ground June 24 on a $689,000 project to replace 95,775 square feet of Stephen J. Gavinski Memorial Stadium’s hard, clay soil with synthetic turf.
The Greendale Panther Touchdown Club spearheaded the project about a year ago and, in about six months, raised the full amount to fund it.
“Obviously, without our donors this couldn’t happen,” said Tim Nethery, chairman of the Touchdown Club. “We were very fortunate to have the support we had from outside organizations as well as the school district.”
In addition to a $250,000 matching donation from the school district, the club received several anonymous donations, the proceeds of a brat fry by Greendale’s Youth Football Organization and $60,000 from the Greendale Panther Athletic Booster Club.
Now those donations are being put to work. Since the first bulldozer claw dug into the real grass of the former field, ProGrass’ excavation team has hauled countless truckloads of dirt from the site to create a stable base for the new drainage system and turf.
Field to be ready in August
Work on the drainage system and curbing around the field will begin next week. Final grading on the site should be completed in about three weeks, at which time crews will begin rolling out the synthetic turf carpet, said Brian Koffarnus, the district’s buildings and grounds director.
Because they are on such a tight timeline, crews have been working 12 hours a day, five days a week, and will continue to do so until the project is completed, Koffarnus said.
By Aug. 11, the turf’s seams will be firmly sewed and glued in place and the field outfitted with new goal posts — in time for band camp, football practices and, of course, the first varsity home game of the football season Sept. 12.
Turf has many advantages
The biggest selling point of the turf is that nearly every student who goes through the district will have a chance to use it, followed closely by the fact that weather will not affect its durability.
“This new field has the ability to accommodate all the sports teams at every level, from youth to high school, without having to worry about
ruining the field … or missing a game because of inclement weather,” said Keith Ringelberg, assistant football coach and one of the Touchdown Club’s driving forces behind the project.
“It’s surface you can pretty much 100 percent rely on,” Ringelberg added.
It also is expected to reduce injuries such as shin splints, sore joints, abrasions and stress fractures, he said.
Koffarnus said having a synthetic turf field also will save the district time and money on the labor that normally would be spent to maintain the field.
The turf will not need to be mowed, watered or fertilized, thus eliminating the “growing season” that typically leaves the field unusable during summer months, Koffarnus said. The surface is also manufactured pre-striped; in the past, repainting the field’s lines has been a six-hour, three-man job, he said.
Field should serve generations
As luxurious as the end result might seem, both Ringelberg and Nethery said the main reason the project was met with such generosity by the community is because people understood it was a necessity.
“We needed this. It wasn’t a want, it was a need,” Nethery said.
And the hope is that the field will continue fulfilling that need by the time the district’s incoming kindergarteners graduate high school. The surface has an eight-year warranty, and is expected to have a lifespan of at least 12 years.
“It’s not just for the here and now. It’s something that will last for the next couple decades,” Ringelberg said.
Julie Becker can be reached at (262) 446-6606.
TURF FACTS
• The turf that will cover the Greendale High School field is made of ProGrass 50 Blend — a polyethylene fiber carpet that is half mono-filament and half parallel silt.
• An infill material of washed silica and ground, recycled crumb rubber is mixed with the surface to make the “grass” fibers stand.
• ProGrass manufactures and installs the turf, and its local customers have included Brookfield Central High School and Carroll College.
Source: prograssturf.com
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