Design chosen for new Mundelein High field
Mundelein High School officials have chosen colors and logos for the artificial turf field planned for the school stadium.
Unlike traditional football field designs featuring alternating sections of dark- and light-green grass, Mundelein's turf will be one color, light green, Superintendent Jody Ware said Wednesday. The end zones will be the same shade of green.
"It will look like natural grass," Ware said of the field, which should be ready for play in spring 2012.
The single color scheme was chosen as a way to accommodate football, soccer and lacrosse games. Markings for all three sports will be added, too.
"We are making the field as multiuse as possible," school board President Karen Havlik said.
In the end zones, scarlet block letters with white outlines will read "Mundelein" and "Mustangs."
The center of the field will feature a large scarlet "M." Like the lettering in the end zones, it will have a white border.
The team of administrators and board members that has led the turf project visited fields across northern Illinois, and preferred a letter at midfield rather than a mascot or different logo, Ware said.
"(They) thought it looked really sharp and crisp," she said.
The sidelines will feature two scarlet team boxes for players.
The yard markers, numbers and field border will be colored traditionally, in white.
The field also will feature yellow soccer field markings and purple marks for lacrosse.
The running track around the field is being replaced, too. It will be a rust-colored polyurethane, Ware said.
The turf team and the school board publicly reviewed the plan Tuesday night. A vote was not required, Ware said.
The field and track projects are expected to cost about $1.9 million. The work is funded as part of a debt extension voters approved this past April.
The move raised $10 million for many planned campus improvements.
Work began after the last home football game earlier this month and is progressing quickly, Havlik said. Crews now are working on the field's drainage system.
"I hope the weather holds for us and we can get even more done," Havlik said.