Artificial turf for Vernon Hills school field?

Major League Baseball teams have all but given up on artificial turf, but Vernon Hills High School officials think it could be the answer to flooding problems on their varsity baseball field.

The athletic department is investigating whether to replace the diamond's grass infield with a manmade surface. They believe an artificial turf infield, combined with a new drainage system, could eliminate the sogginess the diamond experiences every spring after heavy rains.

The wet conditions have forced the team to postpone or relocate games and to shift practices to nearby parking lots, Athletic Director Brian McDonald said.

"It's just not baseball (on concrete)," McDonald said. "The game was designed to be played on some kind of turf. It certainly wasn't designed to be played in a parking lot."

If the plan moves forward, Vernon Hills High would become the first suburban high school to have a baseball field equipped with artificial turf.

Chicago's Clemente High School is the only school in the state with such a field now, said Anthony Holman, assistant executive director of the Illinois High School Association.

The varsity baseball field at Libertyville High School has a ring of artificial turf near the batter's boxes, but it doesn't extend onto the rest of the playing field, officials said.

Artificial turf is more common -- but still relatively rare -- on high school football fields. In Lake County, Lake Zurich, Grayslake Central, Carmel Catholic in Mundelein and Libertyville have synthetic football fields.

McDonald, who started at Vernon Hills last year, isn't sure why the baseball field floods every spring, but said finding and fixing the problem would require crews to tear up the surface, he said.

"It's a big investment in time and energy," he said.

Artificial turf would eliminate the problem, provide a surface that can better handle rainfall and reduce maintenance costs, McDonald said.

Infield turf replacement could cost $170,000, officials estimated. The entire field wouldn't be resurfaced because the cost would be much greater, McDonald said.

The work could be done this fall, ahead of the spring 2009 season, he said.

McDonald spoke about the proposal last week to the Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 board's facilities and finance committee. The panel took no formal action but said $50,000 that had been set aside for drainage repairs at the field could be put toward artificial turf.

The rest of the funding for the project could come from revenue generated by a campus cellular tower lease and private donations, committee leader Pat Groody said.

Donations have been used to fund other athletic improvements in the district, including the 2005 installation of artificial turf at Libertyville High's football field.

The full school board will discuss the proposal at a future meeting, officials said.