Work on Lafourche fields to begin Monday

Lafourche Parish high school student-athletes are officially saying good bye to their natural grass playing surfaces this week.

Work will begin on field turf construction in Lafourche Parish next week when school resumes – several months before the start of the 2018 football season, which is the target date to have the fields completed and ready for play.

Lafourche is renovating the playing surface on all three public school football stadiums after voters elected last year to renew a preexisting facility’s millage which goes to give funding to school board construction in the area.

The push to get field turf is decades in the making for Lafourche’s fields, which host literally hundreds of games a year between high school football, high school soccer, high school track and field and middle school events.

That number is far greater than what natural grass experts say is safe to keep grass in playable condition throughout the course of a school year.

Coaches around the area championed the cause and asked the public to support the millage. With the fields, they believe that local teams will be better off – both now and into the future.

“This is much-needed,” said Central Lafourche football coach Keith Menard when the vote was being considered. “It’s a safety issue. This is not about wins and losses or one sport getting favoritism over the other. It’s safety. Our fields are overloaded and they just have too much wear and tear on them. The grass can’t keep up and the conditions deteriorate and it just becomes a safety hazard, you know? This is much needed. It’s something that will be great for high school sports in our area.”

Menard touched on safety.

Local coaches believe that they have evidence to show that the local fields were causing injury.

A couple years ago, a rainy summer and a busy fall schedule mutilated the grass fields in Lafourche Parish, which coaches believed helped spark an injury bug in the area in that season.

One game in particular was played between Central Lafourche and Thibodaux. On a muddy field, several Trojans and Tigers’ players went down injured with leg, ankle and foot injuries – something that coaches on both sidelines said they believes were due to field conditions during the game.

In the 2016 season, South Lafourche also lost its quarterback and running back to high ankle sprains – nagging injuries which plagued the team throughout the season.

The Tarpons played a handful of “mud games” in the early phases of that season.

“I think it’s time,” Thibodaux coach Chris Dugas said when the vote was being considered. “I think, we, as coaches, we all want what’s best for our kids and our teams. I think if the money is available and there’s a way to get this done, I think it’s time that we do it.”

The project will come at no additional cost to Lafourche tax payers.

The millage being used has been on Lafourche’s tax rolls for several voting cycles. It was created to pool funding for the Lafourche Parish School Board to do facility maintenance or construction throughout the parish as need arises.

In the past, the millage has been used to fund construction of new schools, renovations in existing schools and other construction projects that may arise in the system.

Last year during the election cycle, Lafourche Parish coaches made their pitch during board meetings and the decision was made to use the millage’s funds toward field turf, should it pass the public’s vote.

The vote passed easily, while an effort to pass a new tax to fund teacher pay raises failed narrowly on the same night.

Since the millage’s renewal, work has proceeded steadily with the culmination coming this week when dirt will be moved for the first time on the project.

Lafourche Schools first hired an engineer to design the fields, which will come with permanent soccer lines and new tracks at each school.

They then hired an installation company which will work throughout the summer to tear out the grass fields and lay in the new surface.

The benefit of field turf is its ease of use and durability during abnormal weather conditions. Where natural grass dies and/or gets crushed to its roots during rain, field turf will not, allowing for year-round play without the surface weathering at all.

The fields last more than a decade and while the school board millage is funding the installation, schools boast that they will save because they will no longer need to mow, paint and maintain the always-growing grass.

“There will be no end to the benefits,” Menard said. “Things will be easier for everyone involved.”

Several schools around Louisiana have gotten turf in the past 20 years with no known issues. In St. Charles Parish, all public schools have turf.

Several others in the Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport metro areas have made the investment, as well.

Locally, E.D. White has a privately funded surface, which has allowed them to benefit throughout the season, according to coach Chris Bergeron.

“It’s been great,” Bergeron said last year. “Here in Louisiana, we battle the rain and I think we have a little bit of an advantage because on days where it rained and the practice fields are muddy, we can go on our game field and get some work. Other teams maybe would have to go in the gym or send the kids home.”

To accommodate the work, Lafourche Parish high schools hosted all their track meets early in the season so that the fields can be free for construction in early April.

Tarpon football

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