| By
MICHAEL CARVELL
The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/05/05
After
watching the artificial turf in the St. Pius football
stadium undergo the rigor of an entire school
year, athletics director Mark Kelly is ready to
pronounce it a field of dreams for the Golden
Lions.
St. Pius was the first DeKalb County school to
invest in the high-priced turf when it was installed
last summer. Kelly said the new playing surface
provided numerous benefits, such as maximizing
usable time on the field for all teams and averting
weather postponements because of quick drainage.
In the end, the new turf will pay for itself and
save money beginning this year through lowered
maintenance costs.
Perhaps the most astounding statistic is that
the school has had to cancel only one sporting
event on the field over the past nine months —
and that was because of lightning, not rain or
wet weather.
"The other day, I was talking to the athletics
director from another school, and he said he had
36 cancellations this spring because of the weather,"
Kelly said. "We haven't had that problem
here. When it rains, the field just drains beautifully.
We love it, we just love it."
St. Pius was forced to look for options because
of the growth of its sports programs and no room
for expansion near or on the campus. The previous
grass field was decent during football season
but usually fell apart in the spring due to a
combination of wet weather and an abundance of
soccer and lacrosse teams playing and practicing
on the surface.
"No matter what we did, by the end of spring,
the field was destroyed every year," Kelly
said.
Before the 2004 football season, St. Pius officials
had Sprinturf installed for $620,000. Kelly admits
it was an expensive purchase, but not expensive
as one would think after taking a deeper look.
"Our maintenance for the grass field each
year was $60,000, so the new field will pay for
itself in 10 years," he said. "Now we
do estimate we will have to replace the turf after
10 years, but 60 percent of our original cost
was for the field base, which we don't have to
replace."
Perhaps most importantly, the turf appears to
have given St. Pius a competitive advantage, particularly
with spring sports. When it rains before or during
a practice, most other schools have to cancel
the workouts or move them indoors to the gym.
St. Pius hasn't had to do either because of the
field's quick drainage, allowing the soccer and
lacrosse players to keep an unprecedented routine
of normalcy.
"It's amazing. . . . it has absolutely changed
the way we practice and play games," St.
Pius soccer coach Killebrew Bailey said. "We
don't have to cancel things. We can play and practice
when a lot of other teams can't."
St. Pius football player Daniel Finnerty said
the only disadvantage he can think of with the
new turf is that it gets really hot during warm
weather, but he prefers the turf over grass. Kelly
said he was informed of yet another benefit last
week from football coach Paul Standard.
"Paul said we may get an extra year out of
our football uniforms because there is no dirt
or mud on the field," Kelly said with a laugh.
"After you practice or play on it and get
the uniforms, you are just washing out sweat."
ST. PIUS' FIELD OF DREAMS
•What: Artificial turf (Sprinturf) installed
at football stadium.
•Cost: $620,000.
•Who uses it: Football, girls soccer, boys
soccer, girls lacrosse and boys lacrosse on all
teams from middle school and high school.
•What it's like: Unlike the artificial turfs
of yesteryear, which felt like cement, the new
stuff feels like a good, thick Bermuda grass.
The fake blades of grass are 2 inches long.
•Other schools with Sprinturf: McEachern,
Roswell and Valdosta.
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