Forks’ field of dreams set to debut

FORKS — The days of running uphill both ways to find the end zone or to score a goal on the Spartan Stadium football and soccer field are no more.

Forks’ brand-new, $1.3-million dollar FieldTurf field, ringed by a newly installed synthetic track, will host its first athletic contest Friday, the Spartans’ season opening football game against the Vashon Pirates.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 6:45 p.m. before the contest’s 7 p.m. kickoff.

High school and junior high programs ranging from football, soccer, track and field and even baseball, plus physical education classes from elementary on up and youth sports leagues, all stand to benefit from the project.

Scoreboard provided

Another addition, a $40,000 scoreboard, was donated to the school by the Lloyd Allen Foundation.

Lloyd Allen was the founder of Allen Logging Co., which operated from 1955 through June 2015 on the West End and was the last lumber mill in the area when it closed.

Climb Mount Forks

The slick new surface replaces a heavily-crowned grass field that had a deserved reputation as an uneven morass, more suitable as a horse pasture than an athletic venue.

“We had a really old 1960’s crown on it, a 6-foot crown,” Quillayute Valley School District Superintendent Diana Reaume said.

“Those youth football players, when they ran to the other side of the crown you couldn’t see them, you’d just see their helmets bobbing on the other side.

“It wasn’t safe and it was difficult to maintain, especially during heavy rains. It would become a slippery muddy mess when the rains would come in October.”

“Our little league kids will miss making mud angels but their parents won’t.”

Forks head football coach Emil West grew up playing the sport on a gridiron made of compacted glacial silt in Juneau, Alaska, so he understands what it’s been like for his team.

He’s overjoyed at seeing his team’s debut on the new surface and equated his reaction to seeing the finished product to the 1990s football film Rudy, a story of a too-small, too slow walk-on who makes the Notre Dame football team. In the movie Rudy’s father attends the lone game his son ever plays in, and is overwhelmed with emotion while gazing out on the turf.

“It’s like Rudy’s dad in the movie,” West said.

“It’s the most beautiful sight these eyes have ever seen.”

Turf field’s origins

Reaume said the project was on the district’s radar for nearly 10 years, dating back to bond measures that eventually paved the way for a new high school addition that opened in January of 2012.

In 2014, the Quillayute Valley School Board earmarked $1 million in funds for improvement of the athletic facility.

“We called it the Spartan Stadium and Field Replacement Project and we didn’t really know what would be done first, the field or the stadium,” Reaume said.

The district hosted public meetings and solicited comments on the potential projects in a bid to gauge opinion on what should be accomplished first.

“We were constantly looking for grants, and we eventually applied with the city of Forks as partners through the state’s Recreation and Conservation office.”

The partnership resulted in a successful $250,000 grant that helped move the needle on the field and track replacement.

“The majority of the public comments said ‘let’s work for something for the students and the kids in the community and build the field,” Reaume said.

The school board voted to accept the grant in January and site work began on May 5.

“One of the components of the grant is that cities or municipalities that applied must have a complex for their community,” Reaume said.

“Out here on the West End, our school functions in that role as the center of much community activity.”

District maintenance lead Bill Henderson said FieldTurf was in charge of the construction project, but the company did hire some subcontractors from the area to assist in relocating some 4,000-cubic yards of turf and soil to property owned by the West End Youth Football League. That material will be used in the future construction of a grass practice field.

Local firms employed

“The scoreboard was our project and we used local help from Forks from the electrician to the dirt work,” Henderson said.

“We used Anderson Electric for the electrical side and we used Darrell Gaydeski’s D &H Enterprises for the site work and the installation.”

Reaume said she checked on the project’s progress nearly every day.

“It’s gone beautifully, without a hitch,” she said.

“I’m impressed with FieldTurf and the whole process. At the beginning I really had no idea how these fields are built. And to see it from ground zero to now, it’s really exciting.”

The surface is FieldTurf’s Revolution 360 line, the same material covering the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders home, CenturyLink Field. It mimics a grass field and bears little resemblance to the carpet-like Astroturf fields of the past.

Revolution 360’s infill system, which the company says works as soil does on a grass field, contains up to 9.2 pounds of material, mostly silica sand and crumb rubber, per square foot.

FieldTurf cites studies that show fields with more than 9 pounds of infill per square foot help prevent injuries.

The use of crumb rubber infill made from recycled tires has come into question by athletes, parents and coaches who say the small rubber pellets that are kicked up during practice and play and sometimes ingested, may pose serious health risks.

A recent Tacoma News Tribune article on the issue cited an Atlanta-based industry group known as the Synthetic Turf Council.

The council “maintains that crumb rubber has been well-studied for decades in the United States and Europe and that dozens of studies have failed to prove a link between crumb rubber infill on sports fields and cancer.”

The Tribune piece stated “other studies have been conducted in New York, New Jersey and by federal agencies. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: ‘Limited studies have not shown an elevated health risk from playing on fields with tire crumb, but the existing studies do not comprehensively evaluate the concerns about health risks from exposure to tire crumb.’”

FieldTurf did not return messages regarding the Forks field project.

Reaume, whose son Gabe is the Spartans’ likely starting quarterback, said FieldTurf representatives addressed safety issues at length during the planning and construction process.

She said she is convinced it is safe for her son and fellow students to compete on the field

“That’s exactly right,” Reaume said. “I wouldn’t want him or any athlete or student playing on a field we had any qualms about. We feel comfortable that the surface is safe.”

She did mention one issue she has heard in the community, the surface’s ability to handle a West End rainstorm.

“I know one of the concerns out there is about the drainage system,” Reaume said.

She said tweaks to fix an issue with a drainage filter added about $50,000 to the project’s total cost.

“The drainage will be absolutely effective for our rain level,” Reaume said.

“I feel confident it will meet the needs of our rainy weather.”

A stormwater retention pond was built nearby to handle excess precipitation.

“I give my thanks to Bill Henderson,” Reaume said.

“He’s been on the project every day and making sure things are getting done.”

Reaume said she’s been pursuing grants for a future stadium upgrade.

“We don’t want to ask the taxpayers [to fund a new stadium],” Reaume said.

“We don’t want to increase their taxes in any way.”

Reaume said the foundation of the current structure is not condemned and is still safe for the public.

“But the roof leaks and we have had to replace quite a bit of rot from the benches,” Reaume said.

“It’s not really ADA compliant at all, so we really want to modernize.

“We are hoping to do a pretty simple but sturdy structure, somewhere in the area of $2 million, that can seat about 1,000 to 1,200 people.”

Henderson said the time spent chalking the fields for football and soccer could take up to six hours a day.

“We will still be grooming and sweeping the field, but the lines are permanent, the logos are permanent and that will cut down on the maintenance time on the field,” Henderson said.

“We wont have to mow or water it, and it will free up maintenance staff to work on other projects throughout the district.

“It’s a field our community and kids should be proud of.”

Reaume feels much the same.

“We are very excited for the community,” she said.

“It’s a 21st century field our kids will be proud of and the community should be proud.”

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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.