Franklin is one of three county high schools breaking in a new artificial turf surface during this coming football season.
Ryan O’Leary | Daily Journal
Much has changed since Center Grove became the first Indiana high school to install an artificial surface at its football stadium.
That was 20 years and two fields ago.
Leaving grass fields behind, a practice once considered cutting edge, is becoming the norm as larger and even some schools in Class 3A and below have, or are in the process of transitioning to, AstroTurf or Field Turf.
Five Johnson County football teams now practice and play home games on turf. Center Grove got things moving in 2003, followed by Franklin (2006), Greenwood (2012), Whiteland (2015) and Indian Creek (2022). This season, the Trojans debut their third turf surface, while Franklin and Greenwood both begin showcasing their second.
In 2018, approximately 27% of all high school football fields in Indiana were an artificial surface, according to the Indiana High School Athletic Association. By the 2022 season, that number had risen to 37% (117 of 317 football fields).
Center Grove purchased its first turf field for $675,000, and its replacement before the start of the 2013 football season for $300,000. The original came with a higher cost due to excavation and installation of a drainage system.
Trojan football squads posted an overall record of 45-18 on the original turf and 55-10 on the one removed after the 2022 season.
“I’m not going to lie, we had a lot of wins on that last field,” said Center Grove football coach Eric Moore, who’s been around to lead his players onto all three of the artificial surfaces. “The second field was a little harder, and this one is really soft. It’s just easier on impact when you fall.
“The first one was total chaos for us, but they drain so well. And you don’t wear out shoes, you don’t wear out footballs and you don’t wear out equipment in general.”
Center Grove is also introducing what Moore and his players refer to as Hog Island, a 30-yard turf field complete with one end zone, located just southeast of the stadium.
It’s there where the Trojans’ offensive linemen will put in a good portion of work. The field will also be utilized for speed development.
Greenwood’s new turf is gray, upping the ante in terms of visual presentation.
“For me, it’s all about the practice fields,” first-year Woodmen coach Justin Boser said. “When I coached at Clarksville, our Bermuda grass grew so quickly that we practiced on our game field (also Bermuda grass) 90% of the time.
“Here, we’re on the turf all the time, and that, to me, is what the transition to turf is all about.”
Franklin’s introduction to a turf field was in accordance with the completion of the current high school. Grizzly Cubs teams squeezed 17 football seasons out of the surface at a time when the majority of schools use theirs for 10-12 years.
“We’ve got a newer version, but we play on so many different surfaces. Everybody is a little bit different depending on the company,” Franklin coach Chris Coll said. “Every surface has a little bit different feel to it.
“The technology in those fields has grown over the years.”
The Cubs play their first game on the new field when they open the season by hosting New Albany on Aug. 18.
Meanwhile, Whiteland, which clung to the old ways longer than the other schools in the eight-team Mid-State Conference by playing on grass from 1964 to 2014, installed artificial turf in time for a 66-0 drubbing of visiting South Dearborn to open the 2015 campaign.
Unlike many of his colleagues, Warriors coach Darrin Fisher wasn’t in a hurry to switch from grass to turf.
The more artificial surfaces that were installed locally, the greater the Warriors’ home-field advantage became. When the switch was finally made, Whiteland opted for its artificial surface to have longer blades of simulated grass than the majority of its opponents’ fields.
“Some of them are so low, but I do like ours. Very much so,” Fisher said. “Sometimes when you see a turf field and it rains, it looks so shiny, and it’s slick.
“I miss my grass. I miss it on Friday night at 7 o’clock. But I think the thing I wanted was for this to be as grass-like as possible.”
Indian Creek, the most recent school locally to install turf, plays its home opener in Week 2 against county rival Greenwood.
Braves coach Casey Gillin, the record-shattering quarterback who graduated in 2003, is well qualified to speak to the advantages of what the new field means in terms everything from cost to safety to player turnout.
“I think it’s huge for us,” Gillin said. “Just go back and look at our grass field. It’s a mess, and we didn’t have the means to keep it going. Now we don’t have to mess with it for 15 years. All we’ve got to do is groom it and make sure it doesn’t have any rips.
“And it helps create interest. Now we’re not the school down south with a grass field.”
