Better Play Today: Top Oregon High Schools Choose Artificial Turf to Reduce Maintenance, Create More Field Availability
Across the state of Oregon, more and more top high schools are choosing artificial turf for their football and soccer fields.
Across the state of Oregon, more and more top high schools are choosing artificial turf for their football and soccer fields. In the 5A Intermountain Conference, two more schools are in the process of installing new turf fields, citing versatility, conservation, and sustainability.
Ridgeview and Redmond are adding turf fields alongside a new track surface this summer for use in the upcoming fall season.
Ridgeview Athletic Director Randi Viggiano told the Oregon School Activities Association that the new fields will alleviate pressure on their grass practice fields, which get torn up frequently. Plus, he noted, the school’s varsity soccer team will have the opportunity to play on the main field more often, as it won’t be in poor condition as a result of the football games.
“It gets so hot and dry over here, it takes a lot of water to keep our fields playable,” Viggiano said. “There are a lot of ways where the investment will save money long-term.”
Recycled rubber is often used for the crumb rubber infill that softens the turf and keeps it in place. It is a key material used to make running tracks, too, keeping the surface smooth and grippy for high-level competition.
Recycled Rubber News
Muddy playground at St. Mark Preschool in Mount Prospect now just a memory (Daily Herald): A local preschool in Chicago recently installed a turf playground surface, replacing what had previously been either “dry, dusty dirt or this really muddy muck after it rained,” according to local parent Megan Bennett. With improved drainage, a Parent Advisory Council official noted, kids will be able to use the park right when it stops raining.
County chooses artificial turf for Whitesville soccer complex (LaGrange News): Ahead of a planned renovation, the Troup County Board of Commissioners in Georgia chose turf for all three full-sized fields at the local Whitesville soccer complex. According to Parks and Rec Director Lance Dennis, grass fields in the area have to be shut down for nearly half the year in order to regrow the grass. Members of the public had advocated for turf to provide more frequent programming for local teams and schools.
Jasper ISD installs new turf for athletic fields (Beaumont Enterprise): Jasper High School in Plano, Texas, installed new turf fields across its athletic complexes. Beaumont Enterprise noted that the new turf, which replaces a previous turf surface that had reached the end of its lifespan, is designed to keep the surface cool.
What We’re Reading
Final Thoughts
This week at BetterPlayToday.org, we dove into a recent flawed study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which relied on long-debunked myths about recycled rubber rather than the latest science. The study neglected recent findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as well as the California EPA and Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).
Communities should look to the definitive research on recycled rubber and its place as a safe, sustainable component of year-round recreation. You can find the latest research in one place at BetterPlayToday.org, and be sure to check out the full blog here.
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