Determined to play: Glenbrook North athletes remove deep snow from stadium

With a desire to practice outdoors and plastic shovels in hand, football and soccer players from Glenbrook North High School descended upon William Lutz Stadium to remove snow that was nearly two feet deep from the field last week.

More than 75 players and coaches arrived after school to move the snow, which was either shoveled beyond the end zones or carted outside the stadium in wheelbarrows or utility vehicles. The goal was to leave an inch or two of snow on the turf field and let the sun do the rest of the work.

I received a call from my editor that afternoon, asking if I would be willing and able to head to Northbrook on short notice to document the seemingly monumental task. Knowing that players from the two teams - who have had their fall sports seasons postponed until a late-winter start - just wanted to play, my answer was an emphatic "yes."

After taking photos from ground level, I found a clear area to launch the drone for aerial views.

I took photos of the primary area of activity, the north end zone, from a relatively low altitude, then flew the drone higher and beyond the south end zone to show just how daunting the snow removal task was. The second view is presented here.

In less than an hour's time, progress has been made to remove snow from the north end zone and on the east side of midfield. Soccer players have cut a path around the south end zone, and have nearly reached the 50-yard line on the opposite side.

As it dips toward the horizon, the setting sun casts a warm glow on the white snow.

Viewed from the air, the prospect of removing so much snow seemed daunting. Later, as I was leaving, I looked backed at the field and noticed the stadium lights had turned on, and I knew that the determined athletes would complete their task.