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There’s a picture of perfection emblazoned in the minds of soccer players and fans alike.
As Chicago Fire fans enter Toyota Park in Bridgeview, 81,000-square feet of perfectly manicured natural grass roll out before them, carrying with it a majestic lure. No doubt, the feeling is similar for Little League baseball players as they climb into their seats at Wrigley Field or football fans at Soldier Field — the pristine natural grass fields serving as the stage for childhood dreams before the game begins.
That picture is changing.
The popularity of artificial turf surfaces is soaring as sports facilities from park districts to high schools to professional teams replace their traditional natural grass fields with an all-weather, all-seasons synthetic substitute.
Embracing the Earth
Simply uttering the words “artificial turf” near a well-groomed soccer field can make a soccer purist wilt in his cleats.
Lemont High School is home to one of Illinois’ premier natural grass soccer complexes. The off-campus, soccer-specific stadium features 2,000-seat capacity stands overlooking a full-size field. Immediately adjacent to the varsity pitch is another natural grass practice field.
Meanwhile, Lemont’s football team plays on a brand new artificial turf field back on school grounds.
“We never thought of making it (artificial) turf,” said Lemont boys and girls soccer coach Rick Prangen. “We wanted to keep it grass. We’ve been practicing on the new turf football field this past week and I feel a lot more beat up after being out on it. It’s an unnatural surface and the ball rolls unbelievably quick.”
Wheaton Academy plays on an immaculate soccer-specific natural field.
“From a purist standpoint, I think most prefer natural grass, considering that at the top levels, no one plays on artificial turf,” said Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood.
“Though we’re blessed to have one of the best natural grass pitches around, a good natural grass field is very, very tough to come by around here.”
Turf times
The multitude of advantages the synthetic alternative provides seems to be outweighing the traditionalists’ votes in many cases. Three of the main reasons for moving into the Artificial Grass Age are long-term costs, durability and safety.
Wheaton College, which boasts one of the country’s elite NCAA Division III men’s and women’s soccer programs, once maintained an almost perfect natural grass playing surface. The NCAA deemed the facility fit to host the 1999 Division III Final Four.
There’s a picture of perfection emblazoned in the minds of soccer players and fans alike.
As Chicago Fire fans enter Toyota Park in Bridgeview, 81,000-square feet of perfectly manicured natural grass roll out before them, carrying with it a majestic lure. No doubt, the feeling is similar for Little League baseball players as they climb into their seats at Wrigley Field or football fans at Soldier Field — the pristine natural grass fields serving as the stage for childhood dreams before the game begins.
That picture is changing.
The popularity of artificial turf surfaces is soaring as sports facilities from park districts to high schools to professional teams replace their traditional natural grass fields with an all-weather, all-seasons synthetic substitute.
Embracing the Earth
Simply uttering the words “artificial turf” near a well-groomed soccer field can make a soccer purist wilt in his cleats.
Lemont High School is home to one of Illinois’ premier natural grass soccer complexes. The off-campus, soccer-specific stadium features 2,000-seat capacity stands overlooking a full-size field. Immediately adjacent to the varsity pitch is another natural grass practice field.
Meanwhile, Lemont’s football team plays on a brand new artificial turf field back on school grounds.
“We never thought of making it (artificial) turf,” said Lemont boys and girls soccer coach Rick Prangen. “We wanted to keep it grass. We’ve been practicing on the new turf football field this past week and I feel a lot more beat up after being out on it. It’s an unnatural surface and the ball rolls unbelievably quick.”
Wheaton Academy plays on an immaculate soccer-specific natural field.
“From a purist standpoint, I think most prefer natural grass, considering that at the top levels, no one plays on artificial turf,” said Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood.
“Though we’re blessed to have one of the best natural grass pitches around, a good natural grass field is very, very tough to come by around here.”
Turf times
The multitude of advantages the synthetic alternative provides seems to be outweighing the traditionalists’ votes in many cases. Three of the main reasons for moving into the Artificial Grass Age are long-term costs, durability and safety.
Wheaton College, which boasts one of the country’s elite NCAA Division III men’s and women’s soccer programs, once maintained an almost perfect natural grass playing surface. The NCAA deemed the facility fit to host the 1999 Division III Final Four.
In 2004, however, the college cut the grass for the last time and FieldTurf Tarkett installed its popular brand of artificial turf.
“Is it as good from a soccer standpoint as a pristine natural grass field that is only used on occasion for a soccer match and I would say no, it’s probably not,” said Dr. Tony Ladd, Wheaton College athletic director. “But for institutional use where they’re are multiple users of a facility, this is much better than grass for us.”
Downers Grove North splits its games between the synthetic surface at Doerhofer Park and the natural grass at Carstens Field. Downers South also uses the turf field at Doerhofer.
Neither surface will be new for first-year Trojans coach Jason Hunter. He has over 15 years of experience on the college level, guiding teams that played on both types of fields.
“I think we have the best of both worlds — the opportunity to practice and play on it (turf) and also with some games at Carstens Field (on grass). We’ll be more prepared to play effectively on both surfaces, and I think it’s a lot easier going from turf to grass than from grass to turf because of the speed of the game.”
Hinsdale Central’s pristine home soccer field has been used for practices by two World Cup teams (the German men and U.S. women) in the past 12 years. But that was in the summer, not during the snow-soaked months of early March.
“Getting to play on a great natural surface like ours, I would tend to prefer natural grass,” Red Devils coach Skip Begley said. “Would I love to have (artificial turf) even though we have a great facility now? Yeah, because you have the ability to use it 10 months out of the year. We could have played on there a couple of weeks ago.”
Michelle Corbett is a four-year varsity player for York, which plays its home games on Elmhurst College’s synthetic turf field.
“I definitely prefer turf because some of the other fields will have holes or mudslides or something that you could trip over,” Corbett said. “The ball just rolls a lot more smooth on the turf.”
Like many players and coaches, Wheaton North senior forward Jaime Orewiler has mixed emotions.
“It definitely takes some getting used to, but I like (the artificial surface) because it’s consistent,” Orewiler said. “Grass could always be soft, hard, rough, or sometimes not be there at all in some places. (Wheaton North’s) field is pretty big, too, and sometimes you get stuck on little, dinky fields. If it’s in nice condition, I guess I would rather play on grass, but it’s not always in nice condition depending on where you are.”
Lyons Township is in the unique situation of being able to choose either natural grass at the north campus or turf at the south campus. The Lions have now had the turf surface at Bennet Field for three years.
“If it’s a decent grass field, that’s fine, but most teams don’t have that, so being able to play on the turf is nice,” LT girls coach Bill Lanspeary said.
"For our possession game, I think (the artificial) field is better for us. The girls think it’s neat to play on Bennet Field, so we try to play here as often as possible."
Bartlett practices on natural grass at the school but plays home games at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.
“I don’t really have a preference,” Hawks coach Heather Thomas said. “I think the girls like to play on both. I like artificial only because you can play on it more long term. With natural grass, you have a little bit more ball control, the ball doesn’t move so quick.”
FIFA friendly
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), soccer’s international governing body, is getting more comfortable with the feel of artificial turf under its feet.
Synthetic surfaces have been used in FIFA’s youth World Cup tournaments. Meanwhile many of the top professional clubs in the world’s best leagues have gone artificial for their training grounds.
Field Turf uses polyethylene fibers as blades of artificial grass that aim to imitate the look and feel of the real stuff. The fibers are surrounded and stabilized by a mixture of silica sand and rubber granules.
Darren Gill, director of marketing for FieldTurf, said that FieldTurf received the FIFA Recommended 2 Star, which is FIFA’s highest rating.
“I’m not trying to sound like FieldTurf has created something better than Mother Nature,” Gill said. “But turf, day in and day out, provides a more consistent surface.”
Other synthetic surfaces use similar systems. The IHSA boys and girls soccer state tournaments are played on the Safeplay Plus field at North Central College in Naperville.
“The surface at North Central College is a really old surface,” Prangen said of the field which also served as the Chicago Fire’s home for two seasons. “The ball really catches and sticks and it’s hard to get a true play off the ball. The new ones are a little better.”
Grass — the color of money
Not only do some studies show that an artificial field is more cost effective over a period of several years, but the synthetic surface also provides money-making opportunities for the college or high school.
The cost of installing an artificial field is about $700,000. Studies have shown, however, that maintaining the field is substantially more efficient in terms of time and cost.
“It’s hard to keep the staff and pay for the cost of upkeep on a grass field,” said Wheaton North girls soccer coach Tim McEvilly. “The price of maintaining a field for football, soccer and lacrosse is astronomical. In the long run I think (having turf) is the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
Streamwood was one of the state’s pioneers with artificial turf when it built Millennium Field six years ago. Streamwood soccer coach Matt Polovin said taking care of it has been a breeze.
“Every so often we dump some more granulated rubber, touch up the lines a bit,” he said. “But other than that, we don’t have to do anything to it.”
And since maintaining a natural grass surface is so expensive and labor intensive, schools are very picky about who uses the field and when.
Playing on a muddy, rain-soaked soccer field can damage the surface for the rest of the season as ruts form an unleveled pitch. Large patches of dead grass are the signature of overuse. The cold Midwestern climate also can freeze the ground and limit the field’s life span in the fall.
The synthetic substitute does not wear nearly as severely. Products like FieldTurf, Safeplay Plus and AstroTurf make it easier for schools to rent field time to outside organizations — like youth soccer, football and lacrosse teams — when the school teams are not using it.
“Anybody could benefit from the artificial surface. Both our soccer and football teams can play on it, as well as our P.E. classes,” said West Chicago athletic director Bob Stone, who expects his turf field to last 12-15 years.
“Yeah, that’s a lot of money but last year when we had a torrential downpour the first week of the football season, playing on a grass field in that weather could ruin the field for the whole year in just one day.”
“When you are talking about a high school, there are a lot of financial needs that are more important to education than putting in three-quarters of a million dollars for a stadium field,” said Hinsdale South athletic director Tim Feigh.
“Now (a turf field) could be used 24/7 by the community. But it is hard to spend that money when you have brick and mortar problems. I’d have a hard time selling that. As much as you’d like to have it, it is tough to sell.”
Now Streamwood’s Millennium Field also serves as the home field for football and soccer programs at Bartlett and South Elgin.
“We were the second school in the state to get this new surface when we put it in six years ago,” Polovin said, “and we’ve had coaches come in asking to use our field.”
Injury report
Injuries are a part of all athletic sports and can happen on both artificial and natural grass surfaces. The question is whether one surface makes players more susceptible to specific types of injuries.
A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2004 compared the nature of high school football injuries on FieldTurf vs. natural grass.
The five-year study indicated “no significant differences between playing surfaces across injury categories. ... However, there was a greater incidence of muscle-tendon overload injuries on FieldTurf.”
“Ideally, I prefer grass (fields),” said Fenton head coach Victor Ruiz, whose team plays its home games on the artificial turf at Redmond Park in Bensenville. “It is easier on the knees and joints. Coaches always wonder if it takes a toll. As long as you have a field with a great foundation, you don’t really feel it.”
Competition on natural turf produced a “greater incidence of first-degree and total concussions combined, as well as a greater incidence of ACL-involved trauma.”
“I’ve heard people say the turf is worse for knees, but I don’t know if there’s proof of that,” said York girls coach Rachael Shepherd. “I think female athletes in general are prone to knee and ankle injuries as it is, whether it’s on grass or turf. The turf they make now is not like the turf they made 10 years ago. The turf now actually absorbs and allows for give on the body.”
While abrasions, cuts and bruises were more likely on the synthetic surface, the study showed that players were more susceptible to being sidelined due to injuries incurred on natural grass.
"I prefer playing on turf," said LT captain Emma Havlat said. "It is quicker, but it’s more consistent than grass. I’ve also seen girls tear their ACLs on grass three times, so that has a lot to do with it."
Riverside Brookfield installed a turf field in 2006, and R-B girls coach Marisa Dobbertin is pleased with the results.
"I prefer artificial because it takes away from the elements of injuries,” Dobbertin said.
“I’ve seen injuries on both surfaces in the five years I’ve coached here (at Wheaton Academy),” Underwood said. “We had one girl, Jenn Lee, blow out her knee on the artificial stuff and another do the same thing on natural grass. I don’t know how substantiated it is as to the playing surface causing those injuries.”
Fields of the future?
FIFA president Sepp Blatter reportedly said that games for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa could be played on artificial turf.
Thirteen of the 40 high schools Suburban Life Publications covers play at least a portion of their home games on artificial fields. Many area athletic directors are considering a similar move.
Wheaton Academy is surrounded by turf fields at West Chicago, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South. But with the return of their varsity football program, the Warriors have aspirations of going synthetic.
“With our current capital project, we’ll start building a fieldhouse this spring and the project goes through next year,” said Paul Ferguson, Wheaton Academy athletic director. “After that, we’ll be looking to redo our soccer field into a football/soccer stadium like they have at Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South.”
St. Charles East athletic director Jerry Krieg has his eyes on a synthetic surface. His natural grass football field hosts varsity football and soccer games, plus occasional boys lacrosse and youth football games.
“We’re trying to do what we can to help the most kids and we’d love to have that kind of surface,” Krieg said. “We’re trying to find possible donors who might want to leave a legacy to the St. Charles community.”
“I wish we had it (artificial surface) here at the school,” Batavia athletic director and football coach Mike Gaspari said. “It’s the wave of the future. Hopefully we’ll have it down the road.”
