Work began this month to replace the original artificial-turf football field at De Soto High School.
The De Soto Board of Education hired ATG Sports Industries, Inc. of Festus to pull up the old synthetic turf, which was installed in 2011, and lay down a new surface. A spring storm damaged the field, and insurance paid $499,000 of the $522,000 project, said Russ Schmidt, De Soto activities director and head football coach. The $23,000 difference was paid for by a bond issue appropriated by the school board.
ATG has installed turf fields at many Jefferson County schools and across the St. Louis area.
De Soto’s new field, unlike the old one, will feature the stylized ‘D’ school logo at midfield. Schmidt said displaying the school’s mascot, a dragon, was discussed but lost out as the final choice.
Schmidt said the field should be ready by the start of the season in late August but will not be available for summer sports camps.
“There’s a lot of people involved,” Schmidt said. “The district has gone about this the right way, with open dialogue with the community, and getting their input has shaped this whole project. I’m happy for the kids. They’ve got something to be proud of now.”
The next phase of the stadium overhaul is supposed to begin after the football season ends in November and will include replacing the bleachers and scoreboard, which is projected to cost $1 million. The school board hasn’t formally approved those two projects, but Schmidt said it could do so at its July 18 meeting. The stadium’s current seating capacity of 1,400 will be expanded to 2,000. The new press box will be similar to the Festus press box that was installed a few years ago, when Schmidt was the head football coach of the Tigers and Festus built a completely new stadium.
The final item on De Soto’s stadium renovation checklist will be replacing the scoreboard, Schmidt said. That should be completed by next March. The new scoreboard will be at the same end of the field but repositioned for better visibility from the stands. Sponsors will underwrite the funding for the scoreboard.
The baseball and softball teams at De Soto benefited from the De Soto City Council in January voting to award $3,158,952 to ATG Sports to build the multipurpose fields off Vineland School Road next to the De Soto Athletic Complex. The fields were completed this spring and the Dragon baseball team played some of its games there. The De Soto School District owns the land and is leasing it at no cost to the city.
Schmidt said there are talks in the district about a future baseball/softball complex on the campus. In the meantime, De Soto’s athletic teams have scheduling privileges at the multipurpose fields.
“We’ve got a good partnership with the city,” Schmidt said.
In Schmidt’s first school year in his dual role at De Soto, the Dragons won their opening game of the football season but lost all the rest to finish 1-9. De Soto has won only two games in the last three years and has struggled to compete against its biggest rivals at Festus and Hillsboro. Schmidt has worked tirelessly to uplift all of the school’s athletic programs and said he hopes the development of the new athletic projects will help in that effort.