ALCOA, Tenn. — Alcoa's school board approved an $800,000 artificial turf replacement to the district's Goddard Field earlier this week.
Alcoa Athletic Director Josh Stephens told WBIR it's time to replace the field to keep it safe for everyone who uses it, especially football players who can be prone to head injury.
"The biggest reason is, when it comes to turf compaction, it's a big deal with turf as far as injuries, especially head injuries," Stephens said.
The current artificial turf at Goddard Field was put in in 2012 and is tested every two years to check its compaction. The company that tested the turf around two years ago told the district it was starting to get to the end of its lifespan for use, Stephens said.
"Just to get another opinion from another company we used Sports Labs to come in and test the turf for safety purposes, for the compaction of the turf itself," Stephens said.
He also said the results from Sports Labs showed it was time to replace the artificial turf.
"Long story short, they told us it was not suitable for competition and they would not play any competition on that turf moving forward," Stephens said.
Some experts believe that hard turf can lead to more injuries among student-athletes. The National Institute of Health also said there is a higher rate of foot and ankle injuries on artificial turf. However, it's popular because it's durable and has low maintenance costs.
Although $800,000 is expensive, the turf serves all students at Alcoa schools every day.
"It's used for recess, used for PE, it's a facility we couldn't replace with anything else," he said.
Hellas Construction will be placing the turf and it should be done in 35 to 40 days, Stephens said, adding it will be ready before school is out.
"We will graduate on it on May 10," he said.