The Seckman and Fox high school football teams are expected to meet for their annual rivalry on Sept. 6 at Seckman High, 2800 Seckman Road, in Imperial after officials scrambled to replace the two schools’ damaged turf fields.
Seckman High’s field is expected to be completed just in time for the big game, on Sept. 6
The field at Fox High, 751 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold is scheduled to be finished on Sept. 17, according to board documents.
If the Seckman High field is not completed in time, the district rivals’ football game will be played at Hillsboro High School, 123 Leon Hall Parkway, district officials said.
“The big push is to get the Fox-Seckman (football) game in,” said Scott Leuthauser, Fox High’s athletic director. “Obviously, there is band rehearsal, and we have a big music festival at the end of September. There also are soccer games, but that Fox-Seckman football game is the biggest event outside of our Ed White cross country meet in the district.”
The schools’ stadiums have been closed since mid-July after the fields were damaged during heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the area.
Board of Education members voted unanimously on Aug. 7 during a special meeting to pay ATG Sports Industries of Festus $1,046,537 to install new turf fields at the two schools.
The district’s insurance will cover $1 million of the cost, and the Fox district will pay the remaining $46,537 with money from its capital projects fund, according to board documents.
Superintendent Paul Fregeau said ATG was scheduled to begin work on the fields on Tuesday, after the Leader’s deadline.
Board member Judy Smith said because the fields at the schools are each 15 years old, the district was planning to replace the turfs in the next couple of years at its own expense.
“It was a little bit of fate, obviously, that we both needed new turf fields,” said Tracy Schmidt, Seckman High’s athletic director. “We have been looking to improve our facilities. This caused a lot of turmoil, but looking at the end of the rainbow, it will be great for kids and coaches to have a new surface to play on and for our community to be proud of.”
The district received three bids for the projects, and ATG’s proposal was the second lowest to install the 50-ounce turf fields. GeoSurfaces of Bloomsdale submitted the lowest bid at $1,030,000, and Byrnes and Jones Sports Construction of St. Louis submitted the highest bid at $1,183,000, board documents said.
The anticipated completion time for GeoSurfaces was 19 days, which is a similar timeline to ATG. However, GeoSurfaces was not going to provide training to staff on turf maintenance and repair, according to board documents.
ATG’s proposal included detailed information about how the company would paint the fields after installing them, including painting the schools’ names and mascots in the end zones and having the team emblems at midfield. The company also will provide training to staff members who will maintain the fields.
Byrnes and Jones had a completion date of Oct. 18, and Fregeau told the board, even though it was not included in the bid, the company said it would train staff members to maintain the fields.
“We did not put out any specification or any expectations on this,” Fregeau told the board. “We just said we had damaged fields, and we have been told they need to be replaced.”
Fregeau also said ATG representatives inspected the fields before submitting its bid, but he did not know if GeoSurfaces or Byrnes and Jones inspected them.
“Timeline was a big factor,” he said for staff recommending the board hire ATG. “I didn’t evaluate this by myself. We had both ADs look at it, and we had Tammy Cardona (assistant superintendent of secondary education) look at it. It was a team decision and evaluation looking at a variety of factors.”
Fox district officials said ATG installed the current field turfs 15 years ago. They also said turfs typically are replaced every 10 years.
Fregeau said it is important that ATG provides training for turf maintenance. He also said the district will revisit purchasing RamSweep All-in-One Grooming Devices from ATG.
The company’s proposal included the option to buy one of the devices for $13,440 or two for a total cost of $22,000.
Fregeau said Fox will likely need to purchase the devices because the turf will be different from the previous turf.
“I think we need to look at something like that to make sure we can get as much life out of it (the field turfs) as we can,” board member Curtiss Frazier said. “It is a big investment.”
Fregeau told the board he believes if the district does a better job taking care of the field by sweeping it regularly and bringing the rubber fill up, it will help prevent the turf from being damaged by heavy rain in the future.
“I think it just got too compacted over time that the water couldn’t penetrate like it was designed to,” he told the board. “I’m not trying to throw anybody under the bus, but we need to do a better job of maintaining whatever field we get.”
Board documents said 30 high school programs and five community programs have been impacted by the closure of the turf fields, and Fregeau said he is thankful the fields are expected to be available soon.
“It is an asset that people definitely miss when they are not available,” he said.
Fox High was supposed to play host to Mehlville High School on Aug. 30, the season’s opening night, but that game has been moved to Mehlville. Seckman High is scheduled to start its season the same night at Parkway West High School.
The Fox High boys soccer is scheduled travel to play at Seckman High on Sept. 9, after that field is expected to be ready. The team was going to play host to Affton on Sept. 10, but that game was moved to Affton, and Fox High will play host in the teams’ meeting later in the season.
Seckman High is scheduled to start its soccer season on Sept. 5 at Affton High School.
Leuthauser said home games scheduled before the turf is ready will move to the opponents’ home field.
He also said having a target date for when the stadium will reopen is a relief.
“There was a large gorilla taken off my back,” he said of the turf replacement work being scheduled. “We were sitting in limbo because we didn’t know how far out to move games. Now, we have a timetable, and it is about as perfect as possible.”