Football, soccer and band members will no longer be at the mercy of the sensitive and sometimes soggy grass at Athens Stadium.

The high school is switching to artificial turf.

The sod was removed from the stadium off U.S. 31 this past weekend. Now workers are getting ready to move dirt, said Athens City Schools athletic director Darin Aderholt. The artificial turf was part of a wish list developed with school officials by Montgomery architectural firm McKee and Associates in late 2017.

Once the work is finished, there will be no more dealing with drainage problems on the field or avoiding the natural grass before a game.

Although the artificial turf and installation will cost the city schools district $812,000, it will eliminate the cost of mowing, fertilizing, aerating, seeding, weed killing, painting and otherwise maintaining the stadium field, as well as the practice field at the old Athens Middle School on Forrest Street, officials said.

Its durability means middle schoolers, who moved to the old high school this year, won’t have to be bused back to the old middle school field on Forrest to practice; they can practice on the artificial turf when the high schoolers aren’t using it.

“We had been talking about it for a couple of years,” Holladay said, crediting Chief Financial Officer Serena Owsley for “scraping the money together to do it.”

“It’s a good bit of expense, and the school board was conscious of that when they looked at it,” Holladay said. “It made sense, and the quality is greater for the kids.”

Artificial turf was No. 2 on the school’s five-year capital expenditure after replacing Athens Elementary School, a $13-million project that has not yet begun. Construction could begin this year, though. Although the turf was not in the initial budget for the school year, it was added once Owsley was able to find enough money for it and the board approved it, Holladay said.

Kids can practice and play on the artificial turf as much as needed, Holladay said.

“With grass, the football team and the band, for example, were limited to one day a week in the stadium. With artificial turf, the football team can practice from 3–5 p.m. and the band from 6–7 daily, if desired.”

Trying to do that with grass was impossible, Holladay said.

“It would get torn up otherwise,” he said. “Artificial turf is much more durable.”

The durability of the turf also makes scheduling teams much easier and prevents the schools from having to bus middle school students — who are now using the old high school on U.S. 31 — back to the old Middle School on Forrest Street for practice.

“That was an expense as well as a logistical problem,” the superintendent said.

The turf has a 10-year warranty, Holladay said, but it could last 20 years. The surface could have to be replaced at some point, however.

Aderholt said the turf has two main benefits — being able to practice on the turf daily and not having to move middle school athletes to the old middle school practice field daily.

“Now we can practice on the game field and still have the practice field behind it. There will be room for middle and high school,” he said.

“Not having to move the middle schoolers to Forrest is a huge, big deal,” Aderholt said. “It takes a lot of time. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s time-consuming when you consider the buses and maintaining the other facility and the locker rooms.” 

Drainage problems

One of the major issues with the existing stadium field is drainage.

“We have had drainage issues on the field for several years,” Aderholt said. “We tried different things, like over-seeding and drilling and filling with sand.”

Nothing seemed to alleviate the problems, he said.

With the middle school moved to the old high school and the new high school across U.S. 31 from the stadium, the field at the stadium is seeing even higher traffic, Aderholt said.

“It was more than the grass could handle,” he said.

In addition to maintaining the stadium field, city schools also had to maintain the field on Forrest Street.

Not AstroTurf

The turf is not like the old AstroTurf fields of decades past, which were known for their unforgiving hardness.

“It couldn’t be quite as soft as grass, but it is very close, having been on other surfaces like it,” Aderholt said. “It’s better than the turf of 20 years ago.”

He said the turf consists of different products for drainage, a couple of different base layers, a pad layer and then the turf, which has tiny foam/rubber beads in it for added softness.

“The beads have to be raked to keep the field even, but it is not near the maintenance of what it was,” Aderholt said.

Another benefit of artificial turf is that it can be played on immediately after it rains without danger of tearing up the surface.

He said the surface of the stadium field could need replacement in 10–14 years, though he did not know what that would cost.

The turf that was removed from the football field has been moved to the northwest corner of the stadium near the multipurpose field, which can be used for band, classes, off-season weightlifting or running.