Key dates
Aug. 1: First day of coaching
Aug. 22-Oct. 29: Regular season
Nov. 4-5: Regional quarterfinals
Nov. 11-12: Regional semifinals
Nov. 18-19: Regional finals
Nov. 25-26: State semifinals
Dec. 2-3: State finals, Canton and Massillon
During years when grass slows in its growing in June or July, West Carrollton City Schools will at times decrease its mowing on school property.
Except its football fields.
“We keep those on the same schedule, three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said Jack Haag, operations supervisor for West Carrollton. “We water three times a week. If you let it go, you’ll never get it back.”
As many schools around the area have switched to synthetic turf on their football game fields, those with grass fields must mow, water and maintain those areas throughout the year. The grass fields need fertilizer, caution for pests and some TLC from employees or volunteers.
Not only do districts want the grass to look pristine for the first Friday of the football season, which will be played six weeks from today, but player safety is also an issue. With too much or too little traction, players can suffer lower-body injuries while cutting or upper-body injuries on falls. As head injuries have gained more attention, their contact with the ground has become a greater issue.
“The key point with grass fields is a regular maintenance schedule,” said Brian Hall, president of the Ohio Sports Turf Managers Association. “It’s not just about the first Friday night, but making it throughout the year.”
To do that, Haag said, schools rely on workers or volunteers who use their time on the hot summer days to care for the fields months before they’ll be used.
“We have a guy (Danny Humerick) who takes a lot of pride in how the field looks,” Haag said. “He uses his time wisely, and come Friday night of the first game, he wants it to look like any other (synthetic) turf field out there.”
Maintaining all fields
West Carrollton plays its home games at the high school field visible from Interstate 75. But the district also hosts Chaminade Julienne, Dayton Christian and other area schools at the field located at its middle school. This means the district has double duty.
Each field is mowed and watered three times each week during the summer, with nine sprinkler stations that run for 40 minutes. The district fertilizes three times a year and watches for turf problems.
Coaches also have a responsibility in helping with the fields, said West Carrollton coach Rob Berger.
“We stay 100 percent off the game field, except for a Thursday walk-through before a game during the season,” Berger said. “Even on our practice field, we don’t do the same drill in the same place two days in a row.”
Even schools with synthetic turf don’t avoid maintenance. At Bellbrook’s synthetic field, officials will pull a stiff nylon brush behind a utility vehicle to cause the fibers to “stand up,” said Bellbrook Athletic Director Tom Bean.
Seams can become exposed and must be glued back down. The district also pulls magnets across the field to pick up small pieces of metal — including equipment snaps, track spikes and even bobby pins and earrings — that fall onto the field.
“The field is expected to last 10 to 12 years, but we would like to get 12 to 15 years out of it,” Bean said. “That goes back to how much care you take in your maintenance.”
Using the fields
One of Miamisburg football coach Tim Lewis’ favorite things to do in the wintertime is drive by the school’s Harmon Field, the football stadium that sits more than a mile away from the high school.
It allows him to think about the next football season.
“It’s still kind of a rush to drive by, pull off to the side and have a nice look at Harmon,” Lewis said. “It’s that kind of feeling for a place.”
To many, the offseason upkeep of a high school football stadium is important because it’s a pride point to some members of the community. In some ways, area coaches said, that’s another way synthetic turf has helped.
Last month, for instance, Springboro coach Ryan Wilhite was able to hold his school’s youth football camp on the field at the high school stadium. Before, with a grass field, that kind of usage would have been too hard on the turf.
Wilhite said more campers sign up when they know they will be participating in the high school stadium.
“It’s a big deal to those kids,” Wilhite said.
However, the grass field provides certain aesthetics that the synthetic turf doesn’t match, Wilhite said.
“There’s still something neat about a nice, grass field,” Wilhite said. “But with all we want to do, maintenance is the issue.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author
