New turf field at Talawanda ready for team practices
Talawanda High School will begin using its new turf field starting later this week as the football and soccer teams begin practicing for their fall seasons.
With less than a month until high school sports teams begin their seasons, the Talawanda High School Brave will start practicing on the stadium’s new turf field this week.
The previous turf at the Talawanda High School Stadium was approaching its 13th year. The field had begun to develop problems with draining, and repairs to the field were starting to become more and more frequent.
The original field was installed by The Motz Group in 2012. Jake Richardson, the athletic director at Talawanda, said the original installation allowed the school to keep the field for longer than expected.
“Warranty on turf fields goes through eight years,” Richardson said. “You can usually get somewhere around 10 [years] out of them. Our’s was maintained well enough and in good-enough shape and put in properly the first time that we were able to get 13 years before we needed a resurface.”
In recent years, however, the field has required more and more frequent maintenance. Richardson said that the fibers had started to wear down, and the rubber infill began to move, causing a loss of traction and footing.
Eventually, it became more cost effective to install a new field rather than continuing to repair the current one.
The school began designing the layout and color scheme of the new field a year ago. The school board approved the proposal last fall, and the school worked with the Motz Group again for the new field, which cost $570,025 according to the agenda from the Talawanda board meeting in March.
Throughout the year, the construction and installation of the field remained on schedule with very few complications. The anticipated ready date for the field was early August, putting the project ahead of schedule as the Brave prepare to begin practicing on the new field later this week and early next week.
Andy Stuckert, the head football coach at Talawanda, said having a new field is something for the team and the school to be proud of.
“We have six home games this year, and it’ll just be nice to have brand new turf,” Stuckert said. “We don’t have to worry about the one seam towards the scoreboard at the endzone [that] we worried about last year … We don’t have to worry about any of that stuff because it’s already done and brand new.”
Stuckert is entering his third season with the Brave. When he first saw the new field, the colors stuck out to him most, especially the bright blues in the end zones.
“With the gradient, which is something that’s become super popular, I think it looks really sharp,” Stuckert said. “I think it takes a beautiful stadium and makes it that much more pleasing to the eye.”
Senior linebacker Sam Yoches shared a similar sentiment. As a student, Yoches also said the new field will be vital to bring in new talent and promote more school activities.
“I think a lot of people will see how much money we put into it and how much time that we had to wait for it,” Yoches said. “A lot of other sports do play on it and will be as appreciative as we are.”
Beyond football and soccer in the fall, the field will be used by Talawanda’s cross country and track teams as well as the school’s physical education classes. Richardson said the project will help Talawanda as a whole, especially considering just how many students participate in a sport.
“A lot of our students are student-athletes, so a lot of them will use it across multiple sports too,” Richardson said. “It’s not just soccer and football. The band uses the field quite a bit as well when they’re out there … [Gym] classes use it if it’s nice outside, there’s usually a PE class out there on it most of the day.”
With the season set to begin on Aug. 14 with a home game against Madison High School, the Brave are appreciative of the new field, and the school will continue to use it throughout the year.
