Momentum builds for turf at Geneva's Burgess Field

Geneva football coach Rob Wicinski is a realist.

"I don't get too excited about things until it happens," he said.

Yet when Wicinski says there's "pie-in-the-sky optimism" about a rebuilt Burgess Field he retracts that statement.

"Not even 'pie-in-the-sky.' Just optimistic," he said, adding that the goal is to break ground on a new field with synthetic turf in June 2011.

That's 10 months and a million dollars away. Wicinski won't get too excited until something happens to Burgess Field's playing surface - a king with a broken crown - but there are many locals excitedly making things happen.

Turf fields may be "the wave of the future," as Batavia athletic director and varsity football coach Mike Gaspari said, but for Kane County's other public high schools that future isn't now.

Of course it always boils down to money. Like buying an energy-saving refrigerator or installing solar panels on your roof, the cost savings down the line are considerable. Trouble is, paying the dough upfront when government funding of education has been slashed due to a sickly consumer price index.

Right now Burgess Field looks dandy, ready to host St. Charles East for Geneva's home opener Sept. 10. As the foul weather of 2009 proved, however, a couple downpours and the field becomes a quagmire.

"Our grass field is going on its seventeenth year from its last rebuild, and our crown (the raised portion down the center that diverts water toward the sidelines) is sinking. And we have six drainage areas and only one is working," said John Robinson, director of facility operations for Geneva Community School District Unit 304.

"It needs to be rebuilt," Robinson said. "That costs a half-million (dollars) to do that. A decision has to be made."

Of course, the game of football - or soccer, which also uses Burgess - does not float everyone's boat. To this reality Robinson has a response.

"This isn't just about football," he said. "The band would like to practice on the football field. We have 250 people out there (including flags, pom pons, etc.). We want to be able to use it for physical education. We'd like the community to be able to use it. The Park District could benefit from it.

"So the citizens of Geneva and all the students would benefit from it, not just the football team."

Here are some figures. There's that $500,000 estimate for a reconstructed grass field. Then there is the cost of installing a synthetic surface, which would range between $750,000 and $1 million.

There's maintenance. Turf fields are expected to last between 12 and 15 years depending on how heavily it's used. St. Charles East visited Carmel to play football last week and Saints coach Mike Fields said the 7-year-old turf looked like new.

Maintenance costs for a grass field range from $80,000 to $120,000 compared to between $8,000-$15,000 for a turf field. A conservative savings estimate for the move to a turf field would be $70,000, and after 20 years it would save the school district $1.9 million, which includes changing the turf once.

All but that last figure come courtesy of Tom Finnberg, who highlights that amount as a "win-win situation."

In his second-year as vice president for the Geneva High School All Sport Boosters, Finnberg is spearheading a revenue drive with the booster arm, Friends of Burgess Field Committee.

True, with his son Nick a captain and the middle linebacker of Geneva's sophomore football team, Tom Finnberg has a vested interest.

But after his wife, Tina, ordered him to quit a prior financial job that left him tired and cranky, Tom has found his calling in fundraising.

"This is the best nonpaying job I've ever had," he quipped.

His efforts toward a new Burgess Field have spawned a grass-roots empire that finds no denomination too small. As detailed in Daily Herald reporter Susan Sarkauskas' Aug. 24 story on the District 304 board greenlighting the boosters' fundraising campaign for Burgess turf, Finnberg is targeting any and all avenues.

There are the "Burgess Bracelets" initially created and sold by seventh-grader Taylor Williams, younger sister of Vikings quarterback Matt Williams. At $5 each, this cottage industry contributed about $400 to the coffers in the first few days starting with the school's annual all-sport Corn Boil on Aug. 25.

Taylor and Co. would have to make and sell 200,000 Burgess Bracelets to net the field of dreams. Thus, the effort has branched out.

Nick Finnberg has started building shadow boxes to display jerseys that usually sell for more than the $100 he's charging. He's sold 20 of the "Burgess Boxes" and has orders to make seven more, Tom Finnberg said.

"It's a nice thing that the community, and even the younger kids, have gotten involved," Tom said.

They're not done.

Technologically inclined Geneva junior Kevin Brouillette has designed posters toward the effort as well as T-shirts ("Turf Without New Taxes" is the message) to be sold for the cause. There's a Facebook page where former Vikings football coach Jerry Auchstetter and others recall their Burgess Field memories.

Brouillette's Happy Go Lucky Productions also created a website, rebuildburgessfield.com, which directs people to the Pepsi Refresh Project (refresheverything.com). Visitors vote monthly on a variety of projects submitted to the soft drink giant, with top vote-getters receiving a grant of between $5,000 to a truly pie-in-the-sky $250,000. Finnberg said the Pepsi Refresh Project receives between 1,200-1,300 entries a month, but it also has deep pockets. The project awards $1.3 million monthly. The Burgess Field campaign reaches the site for voting on Oct. 1.

Elsewhere in Kane County, high schools are standing pat with their fields despite the possibility that a "package deal" could lower costs for all.

Batavia's Gaspari said no new field is in the immediate future. Jim Blaney, director of school and community relations for St. Charles School District 303 and undoubtedly more well-known as a fine sports announcer for the likes of Comcast CN100, said discussion on the topic had arisen in the recent past as part of a review of all 17 facilities in the district; but "there are no plans at the present time to put in turf fields at the two high schools," he said.

It may turn out to be more dream than plan at Geneva. That's not stopping what's become a community effort to maximize a valuable resource.