Justin Turner's 80,000 sq. foot $3 million practice field
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=877822
Unless I'm mistaken and he plays for another Massillon, Ohio team.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:18 AM ^
I love the picture caption. On another note, though, WHY don't the Bengals have an indoor practice in this day and age? The Lions have one, so the "They suck" argument is null.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:36 PM ^
Dude Canton/Massillon area is insane about football. That's where the Ohio High School State Championships usually are and the NFL football hall of fame is there too.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:06 PM ^
That's pretty disgusting if you ask me. There are plenty of schools that can barely make ends meet while others are building facilities for their football teams that some NFL teams don't even have access too? I love watching football and all but priorities, man, priorities.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:12 PM ^
You can't blame the school for that stuff. Usually those facilities are paid for predominantly by some wealthy parents or boosters.
When I was in high school, the three wealthy Grand Rapids high schools had a turf war, where one school put in brand new field turf field, then after the other 2 followed, on put in a field turf soccer field, one followed with a field turf practice field, and it kept going and going. The point is that the school districts or the state didn't pay for any of this, it was all a handful of parents who wanted their kids school to be the best. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with it in Massillon as well.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:28 PM ^
Earlier this year I talked with a superintendent at a school that installed field turf. Supposedly, over the long run, the field turf will be cheaper than natural grass. Once you take into account all the watering, maintenance, labor, and other expenses needed to keep a natural grass field in playing condition every year compared to paying to install the field turf and then just letting it sit for 10-15 years, the schools might have just paid for it themselves in order to save money. Assuming they were paying to take care of the grass fields too, of course.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:30 PM ^
Out of curiosity, which high schools were they?
November 19th, 2008 at 4:56 PM ^
Forest Hills Northern (my alma mater), Forest Hills Central and East Grand Rapids (Kevin Grady). And I know for a fact that the schools did not pay for at (at least not most) because I know many of the parents who paid for it. Most were parents of my teammates.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:08 PM ^
I thought those might have been the schools (FHC is my alma mater). Doesn't surprise me that they would be trying to one up each other. There may be additional reasons for installing the turf (e.g., less cost in the long run per wile_e8's comment), but that's probably more incidental and used to justify the expense.
Doubt it denied the schools of funds either. If it still holds true from when I was there, the school districts usually aren't hurting for cash.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:15 PM ^
No, none of those schools are strapped. And I agree with you that the cost measure was more of a justification than the reason. It's not a coincidence that East was the first school in west michigan to have field turf, and within a year both other schools had it. FHC putting in field turf practice fields was the funny part, since it is just a big patch of field turf surrounded by grass. It probably takes more time to mow around it.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:35 PM ^
That is kinda funny, but not surprising when the main motivation is to one-up the other school. However, I do find it surprising that FH Eastern isn't on that list. Maybe they don't need to upgrade their facilities.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:57 PM ^
This happened before FHE existed. Their stadium had field turf when it was built.
November 19th, 2008 at 6:33 PM ^
That was privately funded by James Jonathan Tressel.