WSSD is planning on making major upgrades to King Field’s synthetic turf, with construction planned to start the spring of 2023, following a successful fall sports season.
At the Sept. 28 school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Wagner Marseille announced the district would enter into a design services agreement with ELA Sport to replace the synthetic turf and update the King Field stadium, as well as to develop an Athletic Facilities Master Plan for the entire district.
The turf replacement agreement, contracted for $33,100, includes but is not limited to a redesign and replacement of King Field’s main turf, replacing the grass bits around the main turf area with artificial grass, and any other miscellaneous repairs.
“Any time you upgrade your facility, [it] brings a lot of good things,” Athletic Director Patrick Clancy said. “It’s an opportunity to kind of look at some of the aesthetics of the layout and [if] we want to add more graphics or anything like that.”
Clancy said the school is also engaged in conversations about the type of carpet to identify the best type of fiber and infill for student athletes.
These changes come at the perfect time, as the field has reached its maximum useful life and should now be replaced, according to the board meeting agenda.
“There are parts of our turf that are literally ripped off and parts of the turf that are broken right now, which need to be fixed. And also you can tell turf pellets are all surrounding the field and that’s not good and needs to be spread out more,” junior football player Marco Kaufman said.
Student athletes are looking forward to the updates.
“I’m very excited especially because the old turf has caused injuries in the past with things like knees and stuff like that and even myself I get really sore in my ankles and other joints,” Kaufman said. “Honestly, I don’t think it affects the performance as much. I’d say it affects more of the aftercare, and preventing injuries.”
These changes to the field will begin during the spring sports season, but the question remains of whether or not this will affect any practice schedules or competitions.
“My understanding is that it is going to be about a three-week process once we start just to replace the carpet,” Clancy said. “Our hope is it’s over the summer and that it has minimal impact on the actual school programming.”
Clancy said he may consider changes to the spring playoff schedule if it would help move the process forward.
“I’m very eager to get that [the new turf upgrades] started as soon as possible, to the point where I’ve said I’m willing to even possibly move the spring playoff games if needed, just to make sure that we’re not losing games in the fall,” he said.
