Memorial Stadium in Fostoria to get turf field

Fostoria High School's football team will race out of the locker room tunnel and onto a spiffy, new artificial-turf field at Memorial Stadium in the fall. The new field is part of a considerable amount of work to be done at the stadium during the summer that is expected to carry a price tag of about $1.6 million, superintendent Andrew Sprang said Thursday. The project gained the board of education's approval Monday."There's a lot that's going to happen out at the stadium, in all honesty," Sprang said. "The big news is we're going to install field turf this summer to be ready for the fall football season. But also doing a lot of work with refurbishing all of the restrooms out there and updating locker rooms ... just continuing with our work that we've been doing around the facilities in our district."It's kind of a perfect storm. With some of our (federal) COVID dollars, we're able to upgrade for cleanliness and hygiene and sterilization purposes. And with the opportunity to offset our normal expenses, to have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put in field turf, we'll go ahead and do that."Sprang said the field, a Turf Nation artificial surface to be installed by the Maumee Bay Turf Center of Oregon, Ohio, along with additional bleachers and 25-second play clocks, will cost the district $1.3 million. The other work will be bid out and is estimated to cost about $300,000, Fostoria Junior/Senior High School Assistant Athletic Director Aaron Weidner said.The project on the grounds is scheduled to begin June 6, two days after the Micah Hyde Football Camp."We have a lot of the original plumbing, original fixtures that we need to update to provide the best things that we can around our district," Sprang said.According to Ohio High School Athletic Association regulations, the first two rounds of the playoffs are hosted by the teams with the better records. From then on through the state-title games, contests must take place at a neutral site with an artificial surface. So, even if the Redmen aren't playing after the first two rounds, the games offer financial benefits to local businesses and organizations. And the school district can offer a better experience all the way around."For me, the best thing is we're able to give something to our kids," Sprang said. "Hopefully we're hosting some of those playoff games."Weidner said the entire community will stand to benefit from playoff games being contested locally, regardless of the teams involved."It's a great benefit to the community as a whole, just from bringing all of those people in," he said. "They need somewhere to eat — that is going to bring dollars into our community that weren't coming in before. And if you're looking at the expanded playoffs, plus our location and our parking and our upgraded facilities, it's a perfect spot. For sure, before, people loved coming here. "I went to some playoff games (at other locations) this past fall where bathrooms were an issue. We've got two sets of men's and two sets of ladies' restrooms already, and then when we redo them, it opens that much up. ... Not only is our stadium a great facility that's getting better, but the greater community will benefit by bringing all of these people in."Sprang said the new field is expected to last 12 to 14 years, "depending on how well you maintain it."Weidner said the artificial surfaces of today are far different from those of yesteryear. The newer ones have a grass-like makeup and aren't as hard as for those falling on it and are subject to mud, insects and other variables that require attention."It's a consistent surface for your kids to play on," he said. "No matter the weather, you're not going to have ruts dug in. You're not going to have muddiness. But I think one of the biggest, underrated things that people don't talk about is if you have an early freeze in the fall, from a safety perspective. If you go out there at the end of October or early November, and we've had a cold fall and that (natural) ground is frozen, that's a pretty hard surface. You don't deal with that with a turf field."Among the other tangibles a turf field provides are the potential for increased student participation due to the upgrade, a place for the baseball and softball teams to practice if the weather has rendered their own fields unplayable and a general sense of pride."From a district standpoint, it's a perfect lineup," Sprang said. "We're not spending as much out of our (Public Instruction) budget right now, with updated facilities. The federal dollars that have rolled in over the last couple of years because of the pandemic has freed up some of our general-fund dollars and those type of things. ... We've been able to do some nice things across our district. ... This is just one more opportunity to, as the numbers line up and those type of things, upgrade our facilities. That's a big key to what helps define a district. It's creating energy. I know our kids and our coaches are excited about it."And, why not (do the project)? I guess that's the thing for me. Why not? There's a lot that goes into it and I think our kids deserve it, and we have seen a dramatic transformation across our athletic programs in the last few years. Maybe it hasn't always been on the scoreboard, but they're working together and supporting one another. It's going a long way, and this is one way to give back. The expectations are going to be higher as we move on in that manner and this is an exciting time for our community."