ATG Sports Industries in Festus has covered a lot of ground replacing artificial turf fields at high schools throughout the county.
And with both Fox and Seckman needing new fields ASAP, it’s possible ATG could reinforce its brand in Imperial and Arnold. C-6 officials are gathering information and working toward hiring a company to replace the high school fields recently damaged by flooding. They met in a special meeting Wednesday after the Leader deadline to seek bids. That directly impacts not only the football and boys soccer teams but the marching bands and other activities. Fall practice starts Monday.
De Soto’s stadium is undergoing a complete renovation; the turf field was replaced in July and is ready to go, down to the big ‘D’ at the 50-yard line.
Machines were combing the black filler pellets into the new turf field at Dugan Memorial Stadium in Herculaneum last week and activities director Jason Gillman said the Blackcats will start practicing on it Monday. I was there last week photographing some football players and it looks great. I was literally bouncing on the new springy turf. No more chalking lines for the coaches. After working at camps this summer on a grass field that’s seen better days, there will be a lot of smiles at upcoming Blackcat practices.
In March 2017, a tornado tore through Hillsboro’s campus. Along with the Hillsboro Community Civic Club and the Family Services Department’s Resource Center, the high school’s field was battered by the storm and replaced later that year by ATG.
Windsor got a new track surface and turf field from ATG in 2011 and replaced that field around 2020. In 2019, the company built Jack M. Cronin Stadium for Owls baseball and softball.
During Mississippi River flooding events, JJ Commerford Stadium in Crystal City has gone under several times, most recently in 2017. ATG has replaced the turf there at least once.
When the Jefferson Blue Jays needed new turf the year after reaching the Class 2 football semifinals, ATG replaced it in 2021.
Each time ATG is awarded a contract to replace a field, the process is thoroughly vetted by school district officials, who also get bids from other companies.
With Herculaneum joining the turf fraternity, St. Pius X is the only school in the county with a grass football field. School officials have targeted next spring for the completion of a new baseball field and they’ve also purchased land near the school to build a football field and track. With those additions, the boys and girls soccer teams will move practices and games to Father Dalton Stadium.
Previews have begun
In this week’s Leader, you’ll find the boys soccer previews for county schools in the Jefferson County Activities Association and the Suburban Conference.
Perryville has a lock on the JCAA with five consecutive titles and looks to extend it this fall. I’ve covered the Pirates against our local teams on many occasions and head coach Jerry Fulton is consistently modest about his team’s success and just as consistently respected by his counterparts in the league and coaches across the state.
Nick Marchetti of Hillsboro and Northwest’s Alex Drexler grabbed most of the headlines in boys soccer in 2023, but both have graduated and right now there’s not a clear-cut player who has risen to their level. One of the great things about this job is reporting on the next emerging local star.
Next week we’ll dive into the first round of our football previews, highlighting Eureka and small schools Crystal City, Herculaneum, Grandview, Jefferson and newly independent St. Pius.
Former Crystal City head coach Dan Fox worked a minor miracle, turning the senior-led Hornets into a winner that made the district final last year. But Fox is gone and new head coach Adam Sims has seen 12-15 players at his camps this summer. This is Sims’ first shot as a head coach. We all want him to succeed and keep the Hornets on the field, but it’s obvious they’re walking a fine line if injuries strike.
I like what Jason Kimminau and Blane Boss are doing at their schools. Kimminau took the Grandview reins from Dave Dallas three years ago and last I saw was sweating it out alongside his players in an open-air weight room on a hot summer’s day. Boss, in his fourth year at Herculaneum, is right at .500 (16-17) but is dedicated to elevating a program with a rich history to compete for conference and district titles. He’s got a tough crew this year, led by 6-1 junior quarterback Keaton Reeves, a state wrestling qualifier.
In two weeks (Aug. 22), we’ll break down the larger schools at Northwest, Fox and Seckman, along with the county schools in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division, De Soto, Festus, Hillsboro and Windsor. The Hawks have third-year starting senior QB Preston Brown back at the controls after leading them to the Class 4 state final last December.