Avon Lake’s stadium gets a makeover

Jul 03, 2010

By: The Morning Journal

By COLIN WILSON
mjsportseditor@gmail.com

Four years ago, Avon Lake City Schools ran into a predicament as the fall sports season wound down.

The football team had a Mud Bowl type of game with Amherst on Friday night, and the girls soccer team had a home playoff game with Magnificat the following day.

The school had no choice but to move the game to Rocky River High School, essentially swinging the game’s home field advantage to the Blue Streaks because of elements out of its control.

The Shoregals won the game, clinching their first district title in school history, but that opened up a lot of eyes around the community, and athletic director Tom Barone knew something had to be done.

Slideshow: Avon Lake stadium turf installation – Slideshow

“That of course got a lot of people excited in a not-so-good way,” Barone said.

“It shined a brighter light on the fact that we needed to do something that a lot of communities around us have done.”

That being FieldTurf. The artificial surface popping up at college and high school stadiums all over the country.

The process wasn’t easy for Avon Lake. It started with a stadium committee which included Barone.

The committee worked night and day to raise money for stadium renovations, but was only able to come up with about $100,000. A large sum of money in most cases, but renovating a stadium is a very costly process.

The committee more or less disbanded after a while, and the money was used in part to replace the school’s track.

“They put a lot of time and energy and just got tired,” Barone didn’t give up on stadium renovations, though. And when the federal government passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, he knew there was a chance that the funds for a renovation could be made available.

With a total of $90.9 billion being made available nationally for education, Avon Lake’s school district could see more money than usual.

Known for being a educationally wealthy district and one that has little trouble passing levies when needed, state funding isn’t plentiful in Avon Lake.

“School districts like Avon Lake are thought of as ‘well off’ by the state. We don’t get a lot of state funding,” Barone said.

“Avon Lake doesn’t’ have a lot of opportunities to take advantage of financing like what the stimulus package was going to do for us.”

So that’s the pitch the school and the athletic department went with.

“We kind of presented it that way: If we’re ever going to do it, this would be the time to do it because we’re never going to see something like this again,” Barone said.

And in a $5.5 million bond issue that included a new bus garage, the school was allowed the funds to renovate its stadium.

What it includes

The bond issue was couple with the bus garage, and meant new FieldTurf, but it was a full renovation of the stadium, which meant adding seats, a new press box, new bathrooms, more ticket windows and a concessions building with additional restrooms on the visiting side.

Though its facilities were not necessarily ancient, they weren’t quite as modern as a school like Avon Lake might come to expect.

“It’s going to kind of get it up to date,” Barone said.

The additional seating was a big issue, as the bleacher capacity on the home side was driving some fans over to the visiting side while others chose to stand.

That shouldn’t be a problem any longer with a 4,500-seat capacity.

Locker rooms are another addition the Shoremen will enjoy on the home side. They will also accommodate larger teams visiting the stadium.

The additions will allow a proud program put another notch in its belt with the premier stadium in the area.

“It is beautiful, probably one of the best in Lorain County if not the best,” head football coach Dave Dlugosz said.

Who it benefits

There were 57 fall events that used the field at the stadium last year, and the five home football games being played there weren’t the only ones affected by a rainy fall season.

“I’m a big supporter of all our programs not just football and we just needed it,” Dlugosz said. “The last few falls we’ve had 57 events on our field in the fall and near the end, you couldn’t see the real quality of what our athletes were capable of doing. It’s going to be an asset for our whole entire community.”

The band, soccer teams, football team and all parties involved are happy with the changes. And restraints will be much fewer on who can practice when.

“We’re looking forward to being able to have our marching band march when they want to march and our soccer team play when they want to play and have our football team play in conditions that are better than three inches of mud,” Barone said.

Often times when FieldTurf is installed, football is the main focus from the outside perspective. But often times the soccer team is one of the biggest benefactors of having an all-weather surface.

“It’s better for soccer and the game,” Avon Lake girls soccer coach Kiko Lopez said. “You can’t hide the skill and the technical part of the game.”

Without the prospect of a muddy field, a soccer team does not have to worry about adjusting to conditions as much.

“We don’t have to worry about the mud any more,” Lopez said.

It will also allow the soccer programs to host more top notch competition than they have in the past.

“It means a lot. We can get tournaments there, state sanctioned tournaments,” Lopez said. “We can always get better teams to play us like Strongsville and Medina. They want to play people with good fields.”

Neighborly advice

Barone said he sought advice for the stadium renovation within his circle of local athletic directors.

Avon, Fairview, Rocky River and Bay all have installed artificial field surfaces and it’d be hard to find a single athletic director who doesn’t enjoy the benefits of the surface.

Erich Frombach, who is the athletic director at Avon, served in the same position at Amherst and experienced plenty of stress with grass football fields before Avon installed FieldTurf in 2007.

“I can remember there would be a Wednesday soccer game and have a downpour and you’d be thinking ahead to Friday and wonder how you were going to play a game on Friday,” Frombach said.

Both Barone and Dlugosz, though, said they were heavily influenced by their experiences at Don Paul Stadium in Fremont.

The Shoremen have made playoff trips to Fremont over the past few seasons and liked what they saw.

“You’re going to see some pretty big similarities with what Fremont did with their field,” Dlugosz said.

Community support

The city’s voters had a bond issue on the ballot already for more classrooms and the stadium renovations and bus garage construction were tied together on another.

Barone admitted that they weren’t sure they could pull it off, so when it did pass it was a relief.

“Fortunately for us, the community passed both bond issues,” Barone said. “Obviously the classroom one did a little better than the stadium one. The stadium one is going to be viewed a little differently.”

Though the renovations are meant to benefit everyone, Avon Lake’s tenacious football support base certainly played a role in passing the bond.

“Football especially on Friday night in Avon Lake is a big deal. The success of our program helps as well,” Barone said. “Since our community is so supportive, they have been here and they know that things needed to be done here and the timing was right for it.”

Dlugosz isn’t surprised by the support, but the lifetime Avon Lake resident has never been short on admiration for his community.

“The biggest thing is that we are extremely appreciative of the community,” Dlugosz said. “Bond issues are extremely difficult to pass in this economic time.”

Arguments and rebuttals

When The Morning Journal asked for reader reaction on Facebook, it got plenty. Among the dissenting was Connie Bockwich, who said, “maybe use all those dollars for EDUCATION?”

To which Ken Kayle responded, “I believe Avon Lake carries a reputation for Excellence in Education, that more school districts in this area need to use as their model.”

Avon Lake is typically thought of as a great school district. And since it was put on a bond issue, the money was already designated for the stadium renovation, which was a more up front way of asking voters what they wanted out of their money.

“The people of Avon Lake voiced their approval for the issue,” Jim Brady said via Facebook. “Education is the least of our worries in Avon Lake.”

The biggest downside to the FieldTurf surface is injury rate.

According to an NFL study, the rate of Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries was 88 percent higher on FieldTurf.

Bob Doering commented, “Sure, if they don’t have to pay for the additional injuries,” regarding the school’s willingnes to write a big check for FieldTurf now if it saved money in the future.

FieldTurf’s rebuttal on ESPN.com on June 19 was confident, though.

FieldTurf spokesman Chip Namias told the Web site “The people who run NFL teams are ultra conscientious, and there’s a very good reason why 21 of the 32 member clubs use FieldTurf.”

The study has not yet been peer reviewed nor published, Namias said.

Postseason impact

One of the big effects the artificial turf will have on the Shoremen is that postseason games will be able to take place on their field.

In football it means that the team will be eligible for a first-round home game if it’s on the top half of the bracket.

“Part of the asset to the community is when we start hosting playoff games,” Dlugosz said. “Just not for what it does for Avon Lake High School but what it does for the businesses.”

Meaning that most teams travel well for playoff games, and the town will have hundreds of consumers inside its borders that normally won’t visit Avon Lake.

“It gives us an opportunity for people to see Avon Lake and what we have to offer,” Barone said. “It keeps our reputation out there as a good school district and maybe even a place where people might want to come or even live.”

By the numbers

$5.5 million — The bond amount that Avon Lake voters passed in November for stadium renovations and a bus garage.

4,500 — The approximate amount of seats available at Avon Lake after the bleacher renovation.

32 — The number of rolls of turf needed to resurface the playing field.

4 — The number of years it took to get FieldTurf installed after the initial movement.

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