July 1, 2017
PLYMOUTH – The work continues and there will be football at Plymouth High School Aug. 18 as the work to install the new surface to the Rockpile is where it is expected to be at this time.
“We are right on schedule; we’re hoping to have it complete by July 20,” said Dave Schoof, director of oprations for Plymouth Community School Corporation. “I believe that we play our first game Aug. 18 — that was kind of the plan to try and have as much time between the finish and game one. It gives them some time to play on it, it gives our (maintenance) guys some time to work with it, learn how to groom it and all that.”
The Rockies host East Noble for the first time in a regular season game in the opener at the field, and the installation of field turf has not been hindered by the ever-changing weather.
“The rain actually helped us out. There was a time there when the gravel was too dry and we weren’t getting any compaction,” said Schoof. “The rain helped that out considerably.”
“This company has been really good to work with. Even when they fell behind a little they came in on Saturdays — even one Sunday — just to stay on schedule,” said Schoof. “We’re very pleased with them. This is the same company that did the turf for the Atlanta Braves and the Baltimore Ravens. They’ve really done a great job.”
The new surface is also a part of a long -ange plan for the school corporation.
“The big thing about this is that it’s always going to be playable,” said Schoof. “If we get three inches of water the day of a game or something, it’s not going to be a situation where we have to just work like crazy to keep it playable the rest of the year.”
He added, “I think part of the master plan is to have our seventh grade, eighth grade, freshmen and JV — and the marching band — all using the facility. There’s no football field in the plans for the new junior high. That means that we don’t have to maintain two $400,000 tracks, two light systems, or maintain two fields, and that will obviously save us money. But when you have that many people using one facility, it’s going to need to be able to stand up to that kind of use.”