FieldTurf @ Mission Hills High School

SAN MARCOS – Lots of things will be new and innovative when Mission Hills High School opens here in August, including a high-tech $1.25 million artificial-turf football field and track.

“We expect the drainage work for the football field to begin in the next couple of weeks or so,” said Thom Clark, director of facilities and planning for the San Marcos district.

“Laying the artificial turf for the football field should start about six weeks after that. We would hope the entire project, football field and track, will be completed by May.”

A product called FieldTurf will be used.

“It's a mixture of sand and granular rubber tied together with fibers of synthetic grass,” Clark said. “It has several alternating layers, with about 2 inches of sand and rubber, and a half-inch of artificial grass on top, giving it a nice green color.”

It looks like natural grass, Clark said, but it requires much less maintenance and some research shows that players suffer fewer injuries on artificial turf than on real grass.

The fake surface needs no watering or mowing, and yard and sidelines are permanently marked, eliminating the need for rechalking.

The field does require some raking of loose fibers after a game, and a vacuum will be needed to suck up debris left on the surface, Clark said last week.

A Canadian company called FieldTurf International Inc., based in Montreal, will install the grass carpet. The same company put in an artificial-turf football field last year at Grossmont High School in La Mesa. It also installed the field at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., home of the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams.

It is also responsible for athletic fields at San Diego State University, the new Westview High in the Poway Unified School District and Torrey Pines High in the San Dieguito school district.

A nine-lane running track, approved for major meets by the California Interscholastic Federation, will be installed around the football field. It will be made of rubber and polyurethane.

Those students from San Marcos High School who don't transfer to Mission Hills High should not feel left out, however. Plans call for the same type of field and track to be installed there next year, school officials say.

Palomar College and Escondido High School could figure into these plans as well. Palomar and San Marcos Unified School District officials are talking about moving Palomar football games from Escondido to the Mission Hills High field.

San Marcos school officials are hoping the exotic turf will lure Palomar back to San Marcos. The Comets, a perennial community college powerhouse with three national titles, used to play at San Marcos High.

But when Escondido High School refurbished its stadium and football field in 1998, Palomar began playing its games there.

At last month's San Marcos school board meeting, Gary Hamels, assistant superintendent for business services, mentioned to trustees that Palomar might be interested in moving its games to Mission Hills.

Hamels said later that when Palomar played its games at San Marcos High, the district got to use the college's swimming pool in exchange. He said the district now pays Palomar $5,000 a year to use its pool.

"We will talk to Palomar about using Mission Hills field, but it's kind of premature at this point," Hamels said.

Palomar Athletic Director John Woods said, "We'd be very interested in using that field, but it's very early for any decision."

Escondido's stadium is larger, with a capacity of about 5,000, while Mission Hills will have about 2,500 home seats and 1,000 for visitors, but that probably wouldn't be a problem, Woods said.

"I think the biggest crowd we ever drew was about 2,500 for a regional playoff game against Long Beach City College," Woods said. "Usually, we only get between 800 or 1,000 people at our games."

Paul Gomes, who doubles as athletic director and head football coach at Escondido High, said he likes having Palomar play there because the college pays $1,500 per game.

"That may not sound like a lot of money, but any money we can take in helps, since our school gets the bulk of it," Gomes said.

John Berhman
MISSION HILLS HIGH SCHOOL STAFF WRITER
February 19, 2004