COVINGTON, Ga. — Since Newton County Board of Education approved the installation of artificial turf at Sharp Stadium in November, there have been many questions concerning what type of turf is actually coming to the athletic facility.
NCSS approved Sports Turf Company (STC) based out of Whitesburg, Georgia to take on the $1.3 million project. It will renovate Sharp Stadium’s current grass field into an artificial turf system called Astro Turf’s Rootzone 3D Decade System.
Included in the system are: Brock Powerbase YSR shock pad and the organic infill called BrokFILL.
Megan Brown, the marketing director at STC, told The Covington News that its system “surpasses other systems in terms of safety, durability and performance.”
“AstroTurf’s Decade system is a performance artificial turf system that combines slit film and monofilament fibers for optimum durability, alongside an industry leading 10-year warranty,” Brown said. “ The Brock Powerbase YSR shock pad and BrockFILL are specifically engineered to optimize safety for athletes during impacts to the surface. BrockFILL is the latest in organic infills and is sustainably grown and harvested in Georgia.”
The groundbreaking is expected to be “within the next week” and will have the same turf system as the ones installed at Parkview and Archer high schools’ stadiums in Gwinnett County.
One thing different, though, about the turf for Sharp Stadium is the fact that Alcovy, Eastside and Newton high schools’ football and soccer teams all share the stadium.
But that doesn’t change much when preparing for the installation.
“While there are three teams that share the facility from a game perspective, they are not using it for practice,” Brown said. “So this facility still doesn’t receive an excessive amount of traffic from an artificial turf standard. We always take into consideration ‘field usage’ in the process of discussing systems with an owner. In this case, the system’s owner already achieved this goal, which is a system with 60 ounces of fiber, well above the industry standard.”
With that in mind, the issue about the field having a logo at the 50-yard line has been raised. And, while nothing has been made official about its design, Brown highlighted that there will be a logo.
Also included with the artificial turf are a sweeper and a groomer to assist with the upkeep of the field.
STC has a long, 31-year history of erecting numerous athletic projects. It has installed natural grass in addition to artificial turf fields, tennis courts and track surfaces. STC also serves as a consultant during the process of selecting the best facility solutions to meet the owners’ expectations.
Three Certified Field Builders and two Certified Track Builders — with The American Sports Builders Association — are on staff at STC and make it “one of the highest qualified athletics construction companies in the Southeast.”
Brown recognized how STC’s experiences and credentials have helped prepare them to install the artificial turf system at Sharp Stadium.
“Our background in athletic construction and natural grass better enables us to advise clients about their facility from an unbiased viewpoint,” Brown said. “Because we are not simply a synthetic turf company, we can advise owners to make an educated decision.”
