Boyd Buchanan Installing Artificial Turf

Chattanooga-(WDEF) We’ve seen a few high schools in Chattanooga install artificial turf in recent years, and now Boyd Buchanan is joining the trend. They plan to have a new turf put down in time for the Bucs football season this fall.
Under the watchful eye of the Buccaneer, Boyd Buchanan is laying down a new artificial turf at David L. Boyd Field.
Said athletic director Joe Pope-“We’ve talked about this for probably the last five or six years in trying to do something on the field just because the field gets a lot of use. You have three schools trying to use the field.”
Added Boyd President Jill Hartness-“We were always having to limit the use of our fields even for our own teams. We found ourselves having to rent out other facilities.”
Said Pope-“This field won’t have chrome rubber. It’ll have a thing called Nike grind. It’s tennis shoes. We hope it’s a safer surface and infield for kids to play on.”
Said Hartness-“The field is quite a big larger, and it’s going to be a great surface.”
Pope says many parents at Boyd Buchanan are chipping in on the project.
Said Pope-“We’ve got a group coming over this weekend. They’ll work a lot on drainage to help under the bleachers because there’s a lot of water that will come through there, and so they’re running four or five hundred feet of french drains and other drainage material to get the water where it won’t stay on the field.”
The school felt the new turf would also fit in with their move up to the Division two classification in the fall of 2017.
Said Pope-“We hope enrollment goes up. We’re seeing a little bit of a climb right now. We’re hoping it goes up. If we could get up there to about 300 or 310, then that’s a good number for us. We’re not ever going to cap it because one of the reasons we’re going D-two is to be able to offer this to more people.”
Hartness says the Boyd community can’t wait to see the finished product.
Said Hartness-“Our first home game is August 26th. We’ll plan a lot of celebrations around that.”
Reporter-“Out at Boise they have that blue turf. Was there ever any thought of putting in blue turf since your colors are blue?”
Chuckles Pope-“Somebody mentioned that early on, and we nixed that idea pretty quick.”