With a new synthetic turf for the athletic field at Culver City High School drawing closer to reality, Athletic Director Jerry Chabola said this morning he has been a proponent of making a changeover for a number of years.
He became an enthusiast for synthetic turfs, he said, “after visiting several high school fields in the area — Downey, Beverly Hills, Mira Costa and most recently Redondo. Those fields offer us an opportunity to more fully use our facilities.
“Synthetic turfs are low maintenance, and that is one important attraction. They don’t deteriorate in the sense that you get pot holes with real grass, which gets beat up pretty bad.”
At its last meeting, the School Board priced the cost of replacing the present grass, and eventually identified it as the second most important priority for this school year, just behind elevators at the Middle School and high school.
Mr. Chabola, athletic director for 17 years, is confident athletes quickly will prefer the synthetic underfooting “because you will have a better playing surface, “a truer surface. And there is a long-range benefit. The field can be utilized more than what we have now.”
He is hopeful a new field will be ready by the time a new school year begins in about 10 months. But he also is a realist. “Lots of variables are involved,” he said.
Helpfully, the project seems to have wide backing from the school community and its supporters. Mr. Chabola noted that the Boosters Club has raised $55,000 to demonstrate its commitment, $45,000 from old-fashioned fundraising and $10,000 gift from the American Youth Soccer Assn.
