Post by gatordog on Sept 18, 2009 7:57:48 GMT -5
Trib article.
Discuss of possible future playing field change to artificial turf for a local school
Expanding their turf
Glenbard West campus looks for more sports space without taking its teams for a ride
By Bob Goldsborough Special to the Tribune
September 11, 2009
Long-discussed plans to add artificial turf to Memorial Field, across the street from Glenbard West High School's castle-like building in Glen Ellyn, are gaining traction, with local efforts to raise almost $700,000 of the needed $1.6 million beginning soon.
The synthetic turf could be in place for the opening of school a year from now, said Mark Flynn, a board member of a Glenbard West booster group and the fundraising point person.
For years, Glenbard West parents and students have been frustrated by the disparity in the amount of field space on the 2,200-student school's landlocked, 9-acre campus at 670 Crescent Boulevard. The other three high schools in Glenbard High School District 87 -- Glenbard North in Carol Stream, Glenbard East in Lombard and Glenbard South in unincorporated Glen Ellyn -- all have campuses of greater than 20 acres. The lack of field space requires Glenbard West's athletic program to regularly transport youngsters to other locations in Glen Ellyn -- Newton Park, Ackerman Park and Village Green Park -- for team practices, using eight to 12 buses every day, said Linda Oberg, athletic director.
"If the buses are running late, which they almost always are, then our kids' practice time is cut down," she said. "Sometimes the buses just don't show up."
In addition, more students are participating in Glenbard West's athletic programs, with field hockey and boys' lacrosse both being added as new sports last year, Oberg said. The district had 552 athletes in fall sports last year, up from 474 in the fall of 2007. Similarly, 547 students participated in spring sports last spring, up from 503 in the spring of 2008, she said.
In response to these concerns, a now-disbanded group called Gain Ground at West several years ago proposed adding artificial turf -- which prolongs field use -- and lights both to the school's Duchon Field football stadium, where some lacrosse and soccer games are played, and to Memorial Field where boys and girls soccer, boys lacrosse and girls field hockey are played. The school's physical education classes use both fields.
"People outside of Glenbard West don't realize the whole busing situation, and the fact that there's just a lack of a sense of community at West in athletics, because the football field is used mostly just for football games only," said Paul Murphy, a Gain Ground member who noted that Glenbard North just added artificial turf to its football field. "It seemed like there was a viable solution in field turf. There should be an equitable situation at West, relative to North, South and East."
Murphy also criticized the district for continuing to have grass at Duchon because it sits in a flood plain. He cited comments made by noted Chicago White Sox head greenskeeper Roger Bossard on a recent visit to Glenbard West.
"Bossard said, 'It'd be nice to grow grass here, but it's in a flood plain, and it's not a place where you can grow grass,' " Murphy said. "He told us, 'You can re-sod it and get 50 uses out of it, but the field will eventually get back to rubble.' Just to make Duchon playable this year required them to dump a bunch of money into the field."
Lights, in particular, offer the promise of cutting down on bus expenses and hassles, since the school can schedule double practices on its field, with one sport using a given field from 3 to 5 p.m., for example, and another using it from 5 to 7 p.m., said Mike Skowronski, who was Glenbard West's athletic director from 2000 until 2006.
Now that Oak Park and River Forest High School has installed lights at its stadium in the middle of a residential area of Oak Park, Duchon is the only football field in the West Suburban Silver Conference without lights.
Neighbors of Duchon, Glenbard West's only true varsity field, immediately objected to Gain Ground's efforts, criticizing the potential increases in nighttime light pollution and traffic, a possible loss of parklike character at the adjoining Lake Ellyn Park and the risk of changes to the natural flood plain in the area.
And because Duchon Field is in a flood plain, engineers estimated it could only accommodate artificial turf by raising the field three feet, which would cost another $2 million or so.
A compromise was reached in the spring to leave Duchon Field alone and add synthetic turf to Memorial Field only, while also installing below-ground circuitry for potential future lighting.
On April 27, the District 87 board signed off on a pact with Gain Ground and a local foundation, the Partnership for Educational Progress, requiring the school's boosters to raise $695,000 as its contribution to the work. The group hopes that the Glen Ellyn Park District will kick in money and reduce what must be raised.
Flynn said the fundraising campaign would aim to be over by the end of March to allow work to begin shortly after.
Boosters have no timetable for when lights might be added at Memorial, he said.
Although some residents had complained about health risks from artificial turf, the District 87 board concluded in April that the benefits from having turf -- particularly given how much safer and better engineered turf is today than it was 10 or 15 years ago -- far outweighed any concerns.
"All the recent research shows that injuries are down in general across the United States on fields with artificial turf," Oberg said. "It's a consistent surface where you always know what to expect. There's no hole that you'll twist your ankle in."
Discuss of possible future playing field change to artificial turf for a local school
Expanding their turf
Glenbard West campus looks for more sports space without taking its teams for a ride
By Bob Goldsborough Special to the Tribune
September 11, 2009
Long-discussed plans to add artificial turf to Memorial Field, across the street from Glenbard West High School's castle-like building in Glen Ellyn, are gaining traction, with local efforts to raise almost $700,000 of the needed $1.6 million beginning soon.
The synthetic turf could be in place for the opening of school a year from now, said Mark Flynn, a board member of a Glenbard West booster group and the fundraising point person.
For years, Glenbard West parents and students have been frustrated by the disparity in the amount of field space on the 2,200-student school's landlocked, 9-acre campus at 670 Crescent Boulevard. The other three high schools in Glenbard High School District 87 -- Glenbard North in Carol Stream, Glenbard East in Lombard and Glenbard South in unincorporated Glen Ellyn -- all have campuses of greater than 20 acres. The lack of field space requires Glenbard West's athletic program to regularly transport youngsters to other locations in Glen Ellyn -- Newton Park, Ackerman Park and Village Green Park -- for team practices, using eight to 12 buses every day, said Linda Oberg, athletic director.
"If the buses are running late, which they almost always are, then our kids' practice time is cut down," she said. "Sometimes the buses just don't show up."
In addition, more students are participating in Glenbard West's athletic programs, with field hockey and boys' lacrosse both being added as new sports last year, Oberg said. The district had 552 athletes in fall sports last year, up from 474 in the fall of 2007. Similarly, 547 students participated in spring sports last spring, up from 503 in the spring of 2008, she said.
In response to these concerns, a now-disbanded group called Gain Ground at West several years ago proposed adding artificial turf -- which prolongs field use -- and lights both to the school's Duchon Field football stadium, where some lacrosse and soccer games are played, and to Memorial Field where boys and girls soccer, boys lacrosse and girls field hockey are played. The school's physical education classes use both fields.
"People outside of Glenbard West don't realize the whole busing situation, and the fact that there's just a lack of a sense of community at West in athletics, because the football field is used mostly just for football games only," said Paul Murphy, a Gain Ground member who noted that Glenbard North just added artificial turf to its football field. "It seemed like there was a viable solution in field turf. There should be an equitable situation at West, relative to North, South and East."
Murphy also criticized the district for continuing to have grass at Duchon because it sits in a flood plain. He cited comments made by noted Chicago White Sox head greenskeeper Roger Bossard on a recent visit to Glenbard West.
"Bossard said, 'It'd be nice to grow grass here, but it's in a flood plain, and it's not a place where you can grow grass,' " Murphy said. "He told us, 'You can re-sod it and get 50 uses out of it, but the field will eventually get back to rubble.' Just to make Duchon playable this year required them to dump a bunch of money into the field."
Lights, in particular, offer the promise of cutting down on bus expenses and hassles, since the school can schedule double practices on its field, with one sport using a given field from 3 to 5 p.m., for example, and another using it from 5 to 7 p.m., said Mike Skowronski, who was Glenbard West's athletic director from 2000 until 2006.
Now that Oak Park and River Forest High School has installed lights at its stadium in the middle of a residential area of Oak Park, Duchon is the only football field in the West Suburban Silver Conference without lights.
Neighbors of Duchon, Glenbard West's only true varsity field, immediately objected to Gain Ground's efforts, criticizing the potential increases in nighttime light pollution and traffic, a possible loss of parklike character at the adjoining Lake Ellyn Park and the risk of changes to the natural flood plain in the area.
And because Duchon Field is in a flood plain, engineers estimated it could only accommodate artificial turf by raising the field three feet, which would cost another $2 million or so.
A compromise was reached in the spring to leave Duchon Field alone and add synthetic turf to Memorial Field only, while also installing below-ground circuitry for potential future lighting.
On April 27, the District 87 board signed off on a pact with Gain Ground and a local foundation, the Partnership for Educational Progress, requiring the school's boosters to raise $695,000 as its contribution to the work. The group hopes that the Glen Ellyn Park District will kick in money and reduce what must be raised.
Flynn said the fundraising campaign would aim to be over by the end of March to allow work to begin shortly after.
Boosters have no timetable for when lights might be added at Memorial, he said.
Although some residents had complained about health risks from artificial turf, the District 87 board concluded in April that the benefits from having turf -- particularly given how much safer and better engineered turf is today than it was 10 or 15 years ago -- far outweighed any concerns.
"All the recent research shows that injuries are down in general across the United States on fields with artificial turf," Oberg said. "It's a consistent surface where you always know what to expect. There's no hole that you'll twist your ankle in."