ADs fielding tough questions about turf readiness
As buckets of rain fell over the last two weeks, area athletic directors hoped for one thing.
Road games.
It's an athletic program's worst nightmare to host a football game after or during a downpour. But that's exactly what greeted Chicagoland ADs as about 10 inches of rain came down between Sept. 4 and Sept. 14.
"It is what it is," said Glenbard North athletic director Matt Bowser, whose varsity football team hosted games on Sept. 5 and 12. "You work all summer to get your field ready and you just hope it's strong enough to hold up."
Luckily for the Panthers, the stadium field did hold up through both weeks of football thanks to good pregame decisions. But not without some tense moments.
In fact school was closed on Monday because of flooded roads around Glenbard North. This was a storm that went way beyond athletics to threaten the well-being of the surrounding community.
Glenbard West's Duchon Field, on the banks of Glen Ellyn's Lake Ellyn, found itself under water Saturday, postponing the Hilltoppers' game against Oak Park until Monday at Wheaton College.
Glenbard South also played host to football games the last two weeks. Like at Glenbard North, the field held up remarkably well.
Preparation was again the key.
"It wasn't as bad as we thought it might be," said Glenbard South AD John Treiber. "We needed that first rain because it had been so dry. We were worried about the second rain, but the field held up pretty well."
Last Friday Treiber checked the stadium field during the day to make sure it could take the punishment of two games against Batavia. He re-evaluated after the sophomore contest.
Not mowing for several days leading up to the game helped strengthen the grass, Treiber said. So did having no events on the field the day before, and canceling a soccer game the day after.
Bowser, meanwhile, made the pre-emptive decision to move last Friday's sophomore game against Wheaton North to a lower-level field. The varsity game beat up the field a little, but allowing the grass to grow longer helped there as well.
"That was a tough call to move the sophomore game, but I felt we had to save the stadium field," Bowser said. "It's something you go through. You have to make some difficult decisions, but you need to do what's best for everyone."
Which leads to another tough decision being considered by District 87 - whether to install an artificial surface, like FieldTurf, on the stadium fields of the four Glenbard high schools.
The school board recently approved a resolution allowing the district to pursue the possibility. One option proposes outside groups funding two-thirds of the money and the district providing the final third.
"The schools that have turf are so much farther along than we are," Treiber said. "Here we are after Week 3, and if you beat up your field this early it'll hurt you the rest of the school year. It's something we definitely have to look at."
Naperville District 203, Hinsdale District 86, Downers Grove District 99 and District 88, with Addison Trail and Willowbrook, all plan to install turf fields in the near future. They'll join West Chicago, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South among the schools that already have it.
After this September deluge, expect even more schools to follow suit.
"If we can find funding for it, we'll do it," Treiber said.
kschmit@dailyherald.com