Dan Weber’s Just Sayin’: New turf keeps on coming, start saying goodbye to grass for football here

And then there were just two – grass high school football fields in Northern Kentucky.

With Lloyd Memorial’s new stadium complex completed in the next couple of weeks, only Bellevue and Dayton will be playing on grass. Ludlow and Lloyd both installed new artificial turf playing surfaces this summer.

Lloyd Coach Kyle Niederman says his 53-man squad is fired-up about their new turf. “Oh yeah, they’re excited. We’ve been on it for two weeks.”

But this is not just about the playing surface. “Everything’s new,” Niederman says, “the field, the track, the stands, new goal posts, too . . . and a new entry way.” The press box was built two years ago and the scoreboard last year. And they’re re-doing the concrete around the concession stands.

When Lloyd hosts Newport Central Catholic for the home/season opener Aug. 18, the Cecil Dees Field complex will have a whole new look and feel.

Not that the new field is a fix for everything. Like on Thursday when the temperature on the turf was 113 degrees and the heat index 104, both above the allowable number for outdoor practice in Kentucky.

Which is why the Juggernauts were inside in the cool Middle School Gym in helmets, shorts and shoulder pads Thursday afternoon as they prepared for the transition to full pads Aug. 1.

While Ludlow chose to go with an eye-catching and unusual red turf with sand-colored pellets, Lloyd has chosen the standard green with black rubber pellets and gold and blue trim.

So how much did this cost, Niederman is asked.

“I have no idea,” he says. That’s the province of people above him. The former Highlands’ player’s job is to coach up his team.

The total tab: $3.3 million for what will become a community resource for all sorts of teams and sports – middle school, pee wee, the band, you name it — who can use the turf, even the folks from Erlanger and Elsmere who can now return to walking the new track when it’s fully installed.

Thursday’s weather hiccup and indoor practice actually plays into the way Niederman and his staff plan to coach this team. “We do things in practice where they have to adjust suddenly,” he says, “something they’re not expecting. That’s what happens in games. You have to be ready. You have to adjust.”

Going inside Thursday was the right adjustment.

As much as they want to get back to the new field and acknowledge what a boost to the program it will be, Niederman notes that the old grass surface was almost certainly a plus a year ago in the playoffs when Breathitt County came to town.

“We’d been practicing in the mud and slippery grass all week with the rain and were used to it and I think Breathitt County wasn’t expecting that kind of field with the mud and long slippery grass,” Niederman said of his team’s 41-32 Class 2A win.

As far as the new field goes, the Juggs will get to show it off to the community in the first three games, all at home – NewCath, then Boone County Aug. 25 and Holmes Sept. 1. Then in their new Class 3A district, they’ll play what almost seems at this point as a one-game district championship against a tough Lexington Catholic team at home Oct. 13.

NOW ONLY BELLEVUE, DAYTON LEFT

Two of the historic fixtures in Northern Kentucky high school football — Dayton’s O.W. Davis Field, completed in 1934 as a WPA project, and Bellevue’s Gilligan Stadium, completed in 1936 and paid for by the Bellevue City Council and School Board, are the lone grass fields left after this summer’s upgrades at Ludlow and Lloyd.

“Us and Bellevue,” Dayton football coach Jesse Herbst says it’s down to now, “we’re still on grass.”

Also built as a WPA project at the same time and with the same funding mechanism was Ludlow’s Rigney Stadium.

Dan Weber writes a sports column for the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Contact him at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him @dweber3440 on Twitter.

Featured image: New entry to Cecil Dees Field