Dan Weber’s Just Sayin’: Looking at the very bright side of football down Ludlow High way

Monday marked the first day after Kentucky’s “dead period” for high school sports.

And the first day for new Ludlow High School football coach Woody McMillen, both a Ludlow native and alum, to get his initial shot at working out his Panther players on the brand new, bright red artificial turf football field at Rigney Stadium.

Bright, bright red, with black trim for the logo and the end zones.

“Incredible,” was Woody’s first reaction, “incredible.”

For anyone who’s kept up with the Ludlow facility since its construction as a WPA project in 1937, it’s a show-stopping, eye-catching piece of work right there on the banks of the Ohio River from the black-and-red concrete stands to the Hall of Fame inside the stands.

“I grew up here and played on that field,” McMillen says. “I thought ‘Wow, we’re going to be playing on that field’,” as his 38 players headed out for afternoon conditioning.

“It was the brainchild of our superintendent, Mike Borchers,” McMillen says. The only other field like it, McMillen notes, is that of Eastern Washington University near Spokane. “He even called them to make sure they didn’t have a trademark on it. They said ‘Go for it.’ ”

In Kentucky, only South Warren, with a blue field, has one not the traditional green. But not the same blue as the famed Boise State turf. “Boise State has a trademark on that,” McMillen said.

Boise State has been able to take advantage of its turf color by wearing home uniforms – helmets, jerseys and pants – the exact same shade of blue. Makes it more difficult in person to pick up on their personnel and even harder when you’re watching them on video for scouting purposes.

“We do have red jerseys,” McMillen says with a laugh, “but I haven’t thought about that. That’s interesting.”

But on a day like Monday with the temperature in the high 80s, there’s this. “The Envirofill pellets for this field are kind of a new thing,” McMillen says. “They aren’t the traditional black rubber pellets you normally see. They look more like the sand you see at golf courses near the ocean and they keep the field 15 degrees cooler.”

There’s even this benefit: Should there be one of those occasional, every-several-decade Ohio River floods that reach the field, the sand pellets will protect it.

It’s a statement that the Ludlow Schools, as they head into a period of major campus renovations, intend to make. “This field is the first phase,” McMillen says. “For most people in this community, Ludlow football is their first contact and has been over the years.”

As it was this summer as Cincinnati’s Motz Group finished up work on the turf. “People would drive by and see it and stop and you’d see them standing at the fence just looking at it,” McMillen says.

He still recalls the one impression he had as he watched the Motz workers, who have put down the new turf at the Bengals’ Paycor Stadium, at Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati and high schools like Lloyd Memorial and Covington Catholic this summer, do their work. “There were hundreds upon hundreds of empty cans of glue” used to join the five-yard turf sections.

With a good number of players – 38 at Monday’s workout – “and a real good senior class,” McMillen was getting his first time on the field right after the end of the KHSAA “dead period.”

He’s excited about his first football coaching shot at his alma mater where he’s also been the baseball coach after heading up the first football program at Walton-Verona and then at Bellevue.

The Panthers open at home Aug. 18 against Lockland (Ohio) when they’ll officially christen the field. Normal kickoff is 7 p.m. but with the dedication before the game, they’ll start this one at 7:30.

“I was named head coach in May and then they finished the field in June,” Woody says, “not a bad deal for a guy who grew up in Ludlow.”

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him @dweber3440 on Twitter.