The Truth About The Turf
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
You get them from the fan who complains about what a certain team or coach did or didn’t do.
You get them from the person, or the family member of a person, whose name got mentioned in a news story you read because they got arrested (those usually include a line that says ‘don’t you have any more important news to report?’).
You get them from the parent who was not totally thrilled at the way you portrayed their little Johnny or Judy during the game broadcast over the weekend.
You get them from the uncle who tries to trick you into saying that their niece or nephew is either not playing enough or is not getting used by the coach correctly.
It’s part of the gig, so I don’t mind.
But I have received an unusual number of emails since the announcement of the 10-year, $1 million investment by Lutheran Health/KCH in Warsaw Community Schools. On its face, who could not love this deal? The school gets $100,000 for 10 years for what has been described as the “health, education, wellness and academics of WCS students and staff.”
Tell me, what’s wrong with that? What?
Well, within a few days, my Inbox was filling up with emails, most of which could be summarized by this one: “Why in the world would Warsaw schools take all of that money and spend it on a football field … what a waste.”
Like I said, I am happy to let people vent. I have always thought of myself as the ‘community bartender’ – happy to listen to people’s problems and occasionally try to talk things out with them so they come to their own solution. It’s part of being a ‘public servant’, the way I look at it.
But the one thing that will change my tone is that I hold those email senders to the same standards I hold myself – to be fair and be accurate.
That email missed the mark, badly.
There is a lot of misconception and bad information out there about what exactly the Warsaw schools are going to do with that $1 million from the hospital.
I am going to try to help you out with some of that today.
I spent a couple of hours with Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Anson Monday to talk about a few things, including the new turf at Fisher Field. I have felt for some time that field turf was needed at Fisher Field. We broadcast from a lot of places in the football and basketball seasons. Everything about Fisher Field is as good as any high school venue in northern Indiana with the exception of one thing – the playing surface.
To be plain, it’s awful.
The field’s drainage system has never been right. The football field has either been soggy like a swamp or as hard as the Tiger Den floor. Sometimes, as Rob Reneker and I would take our pregame walk across it, we found different sections of the field to be in different levels of ‘wetness.’
It has been a giant pimple on the beautiful face of the Tiger Athletic Complex, which is foot-for-foot the best overall athletic complex at a high school anywhere.
Warsaw deserves better. Those kids who play on it deserve better.
Because of the fragile nature of the field, the school has done everything they could to protect it. They have hardly used it beyond when they had to, and they even moved a junior varsity football game to Lakeview Middle School a few years back because it had been a wet week in the area and rain was in the forecast for that Saturday.
That will no longer be the case.
Fisher Field hosts about 15 sporting events each year including football, band and a powder puff football game that is part of homecoming week festivities. If you think of it in terms of hours of use, and you factor in the pregame warmup for the football games and the marching band’s pregame performance, it adds up to 68 hours of use. Total. For a whole school year.
With field turf in place, the school no longer has to ‘baby’ that ground. Field turf means that PE classes would use that space, which means every student will be out there doing something at some point. That’s about 450 potential hours of use.
That means the high school football teams can practice there a lot, if not every day. In talking with head football coach Phil Jensen about it, he says they would practice on it more often on weeks when they play at home and less often when they will play on a grass field for a road game. Plus the freshmen would play and could practice there. Add another 250 hours of use for football.
It means the band can practice there, with their elaborate sets and props, without worrying about tearing up or putting ruts in the football field. That will make the band better, it will free up the southwest parking lot for parking cars, and opens the door for them to host band competitions. Add 125 hours of use for the band.
If that’s not enough, you could have pee wee football games and practices on it, the baseball and softball teams can practice on the turf earlier in March because the rubber tires ground up in the carpet holds heat and can make it feel 20 degrees warmer than the actual air temperature. Add another 60 hours of use for everyone else.
Plus, it makes track meets and practices easier to operate. What a pain to be forced to walk around the roped-off area where they planted grass seed, right?
Put a calculator to all of that, and you get about 900 hours of use per school year. Subtract 68 from 900 and you get a gain of 832 hours per year of use.
Now, you are reading this and grumbling into your coffee cup “I don’t care about sports, Roger.”
Well, do you pay taxes?
The KCH donation pays the $700,000 needed to install the field. Cost to the school per school year: $0.
Field turf is virtually maintenance-free. You don’t have to mow it, paint new lines on it, seed it, fertilize it, irrigate it, or pay anyone to do any of those things. Cost to the school per school year: $100.
With natural grass, Warsaw has been paying (drum roll please….) $27,000 per school year!
So, it didn’t cost Warsaw Schools a dime to install the field and they will save $26,900 each year because they have it. And their manpower becomes more efficient because they take people away from messing with the field and put them onto other projects.
When it’s finished, the turf will have an eight-year warranty, and these fields generally don’t need to be replaced for well over 10 years.
Oh, and there will be $300,000 left over for repairing the track surface and whatever else the school needs.
So if you want to hate on it, you can, but only because you just want to be that way. It’s a sound financial move, it benefits most of the kids at Warsaw Community High School and it takes a step toward improving the band and most of the athletic teams – which if you have not noticed, matters here.
So roll out the “red carpet” for the “green carpet”![[In-content Ad]]
You get them from the fan who complains about what a certain team or coach did or didn’t do.
You get them from the person, or the family member of a person, whose name got mentioned in a news story you read because they got arrested (those usually include a line that says ‘don’t you have any more important news to report?’).
You get them from the parent who was not totally thrilled at the way you portrayed their little Johnny or Judy during the game broadcast over the weekend.
You get them from the uncle who tries to trick you into saying that their niece or nephew is either not playing enough or is not getting used by the coach correctly.
It’s part of the gig, so I don’t mind.
But I have received an unusual number of emails since the announcement of the 10-year, $1 million investment by Lutheran Health/KCH in Warsaw Community Schools. On its face, who could not love this deal? The school gets $100,000 for 10 years for what has been described as the “health, education, wellness and academics of WCS students and staff.”
Tell me, what’s wrong with that? What?
Well, within a few days, my Inbox was filling up with emails, most of which could be summarized by this one: “Why in the world would Warsaw schools take all of that money and spend it on a football field … what a waste.”
Like I said, I am happy to let people vent. I have always thought of myself as the ‘community bartender’ – happy to listen to people’s problems and occasionally try to talk things out with them so they come to their own solution. It’s part of being a ‘public servant’, the way I look at it.
But the one thing that will change my tone is that I hold those email senders to the same standards I hold myself – to be fair and be accurate.
That email missed the mark, badly.
There is a lot of misconception and bad information out there about what exactly the Warsaw schools are going to do with that $1 million from the hospital.
I am going to try to help you out with some of that today.
I spent a couple of hours with Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Anson Monday to talk about a few things, including the new turf at Fisher Field. I have felt for some time that field turf was needed at Fisher Field. We broadcast from a lot of places in the football and basketball seasons. Everything about Fisher Field is as good as any high school venue in northern Indiana with the exception of one thing – the playing surface.
To be plain, it’s awful.
The field’s drainage system has never been right. The football field has either been soggy like a swamp or as hard as the Tiger Den floor. Sometimes, as Rob Reneker and I would take our pregame walk across it, we found different sections of the field to be in different levels of ‘wetness.’
It has been a giant pimple on the beautiful face of the Tiger Athletic Complex, which is foot-for-foot the best overall athletic complex at a high school anywhere.
Warsaw deserves better. Those kids who play on it deserve better.
Because of the fragile nature of the field, the school has done everything they could to protect it. They have hardly used it beyond when they had to, and they even moved a junior varsity football game to Lakeview Middle School a few years back because it had been a wet week in the area and rain was in the forecast for that Saturday.
That will no longer be the case.
Fisher Field hosts about 15 sporting events each year including football, band and a powder puff football game that is part of homecoming week festivities. If you think of it in terms of hours of use, and you factor in the pregame warmup for the football games and the marching band’s pregame performance, it adds up to 68 hours of use. Total. For a whole school year.
With field turf in place, the school no longer has to ‘baby’ that ground. Field turf means that PE classes would use that space, which means every student will be out there doing something at some point. That’s about 450 potential hours of use.
That means the high school football teams can practice there a lot, if not every day. In talking with head football coach Phil Jensen about it, he says they would practice on it more often on weeks when they play at home and less often when they will play on a grass field for a road game. Plus the freshmen would play and could practice there. Add another 250 hours of use for football.
It means the band can practice there, with their elaborate sets and props, without worrying about tearing up or putting ruts in the football field. That will make the band better, it will free up the southwest parking lot for parking cars, and opens the door for them to host band competitions. Add 125 hours of use for the band.
If that’s not enough, you could have pee wee football games and practices on it, the baseball and softball teams can practice on the turf earlier in March because the rubber tires ground up in the carpet holds heat and can make it feel 20 degrees warmer than the actual air temperature. Add another 60 hours of use for everyone else.
Plus, it makes track meets and practices easier to operate. What a pain to be forced to walk around the roped-off area where they planted grass seed, right?
Put a calculator to all of that, and you get about 900 hours of use per school year. Subtract 68 from 900 and you get a gain of 832 hours per year of use.
Now, you are reading this and grumbling into your coffee cup “I don’t care about sports, Roger.”
Well, do you pay taxes?
The KCH donation pays the $700,000 needed to install the field. Cost to the school per school year: $0.
Field turf is virtually maintenance-free. You don’t have to mow it, paint new lines on it, seed it, fertilize it, irrigate it, or pay anyone to do any of those things. Cost to the school per school year: $100.
With natural grass, Warsaw has been paying (drum roll please….) $27,000 per school year!
So, it didn’t cost Warsaw Schools a dime to install the field and they will save $26,900 each year because they have it. And their manpower becomes more efficient because they take people away from messing with the field and put them onto other projects.
When it’s finished, the turf will have an eight-year warranty, and these fields generally don’t need to be replaced for well over 10 years.
Oh, and there will be $300,000 left over for repairing the track surface and whatever else the school needs.
So if you want to hate on it, you can, but only because you just want to be that way. It’s a sound financial move, it benefits most of the kids at Warsaw Community High School and it takes a step toward improving the band and most of the athletic teams – which if you have not noticed, matters here.
So roll out the “red carpet” for the “green carpet”![[In-content Ad]]
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