SportsTurf

March 2017

SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.

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www.stma.org March 2017 | SportsTurf 29 lane of the track based on where the home grand stands were built. The orientation was redesigned shifting the field towards space on the home side to best suit Gilmer High School's needs and allow for a regulation soccer field. The entire field was enlarged, the distance between the measure lines for the track were changed, and the straightaways were shortened. The curves were made longer and wider to accommodate the new wider field and maintain 6 lanes on the track. Track construction began with installation of a 4-inch stone base and 3-inches of asphalt. A Sports Track ST-50 13 mm black latex track surface was installed and the track lined for GHSA competition. The Golden Series carpet replaces rubber infill with ZeoFill, a brand of Zeolite. ZeoFill is an all-natural mineral, able to absorb 81% of its weight in water and release it slowly to create an evapotranspiration effect, thereby cooling the field. The turf in the DT32 system packs 80 ounces of fiber per yard into 1.25-inch tall pile, with each row spread apart only 3/16 of an inch. The increase in fiber density compared to conventional competition turf systems with only 36 ounces of fiber means it is twice as heavy as those traditional commodity systems and four times as dense. The Brock pad system consisted of small beads of polypropylene molded under pressure into a certain design, and allows the system to maintain a low stable force reduction rating, aka Gmax. Brock pads are guaranteed for two lifetimes of the field. Todd Wiggins, VP at Sports Turf Company says, "The new field is unique in that young athletes play on the fiber like they would grass on a natural field, instead of playing only on the fill. We look for synthetic turf solutions, which closely mimic a high-performance sand rootzone natural grass field." "We absolutely love the new field and track! It looks great and gave the students a real sense of pride to play on this fall. We are looking forward to using it for our upcoming soccer and track & field season."- Principal Carla Foley "This is the second time I have been involved with a new facility. When I was an AD at another school, I was on the front end of all of the grading, installation etc. of our football field. Our new complex is top notch! Our whole community loves our new facility. It is first class…it makes our whole community proud…our players like playing on it…other teams really like it as well. It is a huge positive difference compared to our old field."-Athletic Director Terry Luck

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