The field turf is going down!

ProGrass Field Installation!

All the way from Dalton Georgia, the two semi trucks loaded with the turf rolls have finally arrived. Installation began last Wednesday morning and was expected to take 10-12 days. The main playing field has now been laid out. The hash marks, numbers, and the logo are now being glued in. Once all of the field markings are in, they will introduce the small crumb rubber into the turf filaments, which will then complete the installation. At this point, it is looking very good that the field will be done on the Sunday before Labor Day just two days before the first game is to be played. Plenty of time to spare. LOL!

The excavating portion of the field installation if finally finished. It did end up taking longer than planned because several obstacles came up that had to be addressed. Mother nature also didn't help the cause any either. "This can be expected with a project of this magnitude," said Steve DeWolfe - site foremen. "You never know what you're dealing with until you dive in."

Topsoil and clay sub-base

The issues were many. One of them right off the bat was the issue of the extra topsoil that needed to be removed. That needs to be removed to expose the hard clay sub-base to give you a solid foundation for the field. If you left the topsoil there, over time it would decompose and breakdown, which would cause settling. When that happens, you would start to create shallow sink holes throughout the field. You have to have a solid clay base to work off of. Then of course you have to replace that topsoil with gravel to bring that sub-base grade back up to where it's supposed to be. When it was all said and done, it added about another week to the whole project.

Another issue had to do with digging up the hard clay. The little backhoe had all it could do to dig out the clay at the east end of the field. "That stuff was like shale," DeWolfe said. "You actually peeled the clay up versus digging it up. Then to make matters worse, we hit an area where there was a huge cache of large rocks that were buried. That raises havoc with excavating equipment. Eventually, we did manage to get what we needed done but it just took longer."

Steve DeWolfe on the backhoe.

The biggest show stopper, however, is rain. Once it rains, the clay becomes saturated and you can't drive on it with heavy equipment. It would just stick to everything and would hurt the integrity of the base. The only thing you can do is wait for it to dry enough so that you can drive on it with the equipment again. "That is something we dread and can't control," DeWolfe said. "For every day it does rain, you actually loose 2 maybe 3 days in waiting for everything to dry out." One of the things that was done to offset that time loss was to work at night under the field lights. "With all the rain, I could see that we were falling behind," mentioned DeWolfe. "Having the lights gave us the chance to pick up on lost time. One night we stayed until 1:00am."

The good news is that even though time and money projections went over because of the topsoil issue, this field could be one of the best draining turf fields around. That's because of the amount of gravel that is underneath it. Water moves faster and better through the gravel than it does through the clay so when it rains, it will head faster towards the underground drain system. Normally, that first layer of stone is not needed and the GeoTex and field drain lines go over the top of the clay sub-grade.

The field is now ready for the final stage. Two semi trucks arrived Tuesday with the rolls of turf. A small contingent of ProGrass technicians have started laying the turf. What we were told is that they will start at one end of the field and work towards the other end. The turf is rolled out across the width of the field and then sewn and glued together. Then the side panels will be attached and run parallel to the sideline. This way you can not see the seems because the are buried in the white lines. Then everything is stretched and fastened to a special nailing board that is attached to the cement curb that lines the inside of the track. Once the turf is all laid out and attached, the technicians will then go back to cut and sew the field hash marks, numbers, and logo. That is the tedious part which could take up to a week depending on how many people are on site. Once the lines and logo is finished, the crumb rubber will then be spread and worked into the fibers. Once that is done, the field is ready for play.

At this point, the field should be ready in time before the first scheduled athletic event. The only thing that could make things interesting would be mother nature herself. Hopefully she will have mercy and allow these people to finish the job once and for all. In the end, this will be one of the most amazing playing surfaces in the area not to mentioned the greenest!

Coach Stoltz enjoying his new turf.

Stay tuned to this website for more details, status reports, pictures, and videos as things start to progress.

   For more pictures click here!  *** Updated 8/27/08 ***

    GreendaleNow article!

Done Deal!
The Community Unites to Make it Happen

Greendale High School’s athletic field is getting a high-tech facelift.
GPTC – 6/3/08

Tim Nethery

"It started out as a dream, and now, its reality!" That’s how Greendale Panther Touchdown Club chairman Tim Nethery summarized it. Through a remarkable journey and a series of extraordinary events, the grass, mud, bumps, and potholes that once inhabited Greendale High School's athletic field will soon be replaced with a state-of-the-art playing surface otherwise known as "Field Turf."

On June 2nd, the Greendale district finally passed and moved forward on a plan that was orchestrated by the GPTC to have the playing surface at "Stephen J. Gavinski Memorial Stadium" replaced with what could eventually be, the way of the future. The company selected to do this project is ProGrass LCC. They are headquartered in Pittsburg Pennsylvania and have been responsible for installing over 150 fields all over the United States. Here in Wisconsin, they have installed fields at Carroll College in Waukesha, Brookfield Central High School, and at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Construction is scheduled to begin about the second week of June and providing mother-nature helps out, it should be finished by the first week in August in time for the 2008 fall sports seasons.

Arial view of Gavinski Field
(Hover mouse over picture!)

The plan is for the entire area inside the track to be covered. This field will have a complex drainage system built underneath it to help it shed water. It will have an all-rubber infill, which is what gives the turf its cushion and give, as well as supporting the synthetic grass filaments, which gives it that natural grass look. It will have the black Greendale Panther Head logo at the 50-yard line and will be lined for a regulation football and soccer field. The end zone markings have not been determined as of yet. It will either be just striped or it will say "GREENDALE" at one end and "PANTHERS" at the other. For more information about how a field like this is constructed, click here for the ProGrass website.

Of course, having a field like this will now put Greendale in a different category amongst the rest of the schools in the area. It will also move them towards the top on the list of favorable locations for post season playoff sites. This would not just involve football, but soccer as well. Because of the durability of a field like this, many other extra-curricular activities like band competitions can also be held there without the worry of trampling down the grass. When it's all said and done, you can pretty much do anything you want on a field like this, and never have to deal with mud, potholes, or puddles again. It now becomes the perfect playing surface.

Keith Ringelberg

The GPTC wasn't the only group involved here. They had help from others including district staff and administrators, Village of Greendale staff, and the district's engineering consulting firms of Eppstein & Uhen and CG Schmidt. Of course, none of this would ever have happened if it wasn't for the wonderful people and organizations that donated towards this worthy improvement. Keith Ringelberg, who was the financial lead person for the GPTC, was confident from the start that getting something like this done in Greendale could easily happen. "Getting something like this done shows you exactly what Greendale is about," explains an elated Ringelberg. "It also proves that by working together, you can get things accomplished to make Greendale even a better community than it already is. This is what separates us from everybody else and this is why people like living here!"

Rodney Mattrisch

The original idea of this field was kicked around two years ago, but it wasn't until this past fall when a decision was made by the GPTC to pursue this lofty goal. "There were countless numbers of meetings, phone calls and emails, all of which had some little part in this," explained Rodney Mattrisch, who is a third member of this team from the GPTC. "It was a little more involved than we originally thought, but we just kept our nose to the grindstone so that we could see this to the end. All I know is that I can’t wait to walk on it when it's finished!"

Suffice to say, that same sentiment will most likely be repeated by all of the high school coaches and support staff as their seasons grow near. As for the students, they will now have the chance to excel at their craft and not be hampered or handicapped by a poor playing surface anymore. And let's not forget about those moms either. They can finally say goodbye to the nasty grass and mud stains on uniforms that were so graciously adorned by the field of Greendale High.

Mark Kapocius

The last member of the group who served as a consultant is Mark Kapocius. He is a long time resident of Greendale and works as an Attorney & Human Resource Manager for the School District of Elmbrook in Brookfield. He just went through this same process with their new field so he knew exactly what needed to be done, not to mention how things worked. He was the one that helped finalize the technical and legal issues in the end to make this project finally come to fruition.

Congratulations Greendale! Make room for yet another, feather in your hat!