Welcome to Byrne And Jones Sports

By: Edited News Release, Southwest Baptist University

BOLIVAR, Mo. — Southwest Baptist University broke ground Friday, May 3, for the new Enviroturf synthetic turf that will replace the grass football field at SBU’s Plaster Stadium.

The total Turf and Track project is expected to cost about $1.5 million: $1.15 million for site preparation and synthetic turf installation on the football field and track; $200,000 for renovations to the press box; $120,000 for storage units under the bleachers; and $30,000 for contingencies.

Two contractors will be working on replacing the turf and track surfaces. Byrne and Jones Construction in St. Louis is contracted for engineering and site preparation, which includes dirt removal and drainage system installation before adding rock, chat and sand. Enviroturf crews will then install the turf.

The synthetic turf will significantly reduce maintenance costs by eliminating the need for grass seed, fertilizer and water, as well as the time involved with maintaining a natural grass field. A refreshing machine is required to be run periodically to keep the turf in good playing condition. The turf also has been shown to reduce injuries by about one-third.

The new track surface will allow SBU to host track and field meets, which the University has not been able to do for more than a decade.

With construction expected to begin Monday, May 13, the surface will be completed in time for the fall 2013 football season.

Original Source

By Jameson Sheley, SBJ Contributor
Originally Appear on Southern Business Journal

If you were blindfolded and dropped off at the new athletic fields completed this summer for Du Quoin and Pinckneyville high schools, your first instinct upon removing the blindfold would be that you are at a prestigious private high school in a major urban area. Instead, it’s small town America making a statement about
its quality of life. Colleges and private high schools have long used athletic
facilities to recruit students. Now, rural communities are turning to artificial turf fields and state-of-the-art tracks in their schools to attract families.

Read full article from Southern Business Article in PDF format

Source: WASHUAthletics

Source: stltoday.com

The Gateway Grizzlies always hope to be outstanding in their field, but they also believe their new field is outstanding.

The new artificial turf at GCS Ballpark in Sauget was on display Friday as the Frontier League baseball team opened the 2012 season with a 7-1 loss to the Joliet Slammers. But thanks to a full slate of college and high school games, the Grizzlies organization has already been taking advantage of the field for more than three months. The turf was installed and manufactured by ProGrass, with sub-surface work done by Byrne & Jones Construction.

Read more: stltoday.com

Source: www.dewittdailynews.com

If you’ve passed by the Maroa-Forsyth schools campus recently, you may notice their football field is under construction and that project is nearing completion.

The district is installing an artificial turf surface to the football field and an all weather track around the outside. Superintendent of Maroa-Forsyth Schools Mike Williams explains that project was expected to be done over the summer, but with the mild winter, they are way ahead of schedule.

The football field project expects to be complete by the end of this week. Williams says logos are down on the field and the end zone is complete. The football field will also serve as the districts soccer field. The track teams’ meets are all away and they are being creative for their practice sites.

The upgrades being done to the football field are considered phase one of what will be a four phase facility update to the district. Williams says the last thing left on phase one will be to make the high school more energy efficient, which will have to wait for the summer.

Phase two includes additions to the high. Phase three includes another addition to the grade school. The final phase is a replacement of the 1928 middle school. Williams says phase three is dependent on the classroom growth of that level. He says current projections are estimating they will need to add sections onto current classes.

For more detail, click here: www.dewittdailynews.com

Source: http://www.footballscoop.com/

Back in February, Missouri athletic director Mike Alden told fans about a $1.5 million project that would transform the playing surface at the Faurot Field to include a larger midfield Tiger logo as well as the addition of SEC logo’s.

Earlier today, Missouri released an inside look of the old stuff getting torn upover the past week. The new and improved surface should be rolled out soon.

The stadium without turf is an odd sight, considering in a few months the stadium will be packed with 70,000 fans when the Tigers open up with Southeastern Louisiana, followed immediately by two more home games against Georgia and Arizona State.

Click here for more detail and watch the video: http://www.footballscoop.com/

Original Source: www.wsiltv.com

By MARTY MISHOW, Source: Southeast Missourian

Southeast has spent $2 million for renovations to its football facilities

The Southeast Missouri State football team played like champions last season, winning the program’s first Ohio Valley Conference title and earning the program’s first playoff berth of any kind.

Now the Redhawks will be able to utilize facilities that, while maybe not yet championship-caliber, are a lot closer to that level than they have been.

The Redhawks will be greeted by several impressive facility upgrades at Houck Stadium and the Rosengarten Athletic Complex when they report for fall camp Aug. 4.

“It’s much needed,” Southeast coach Tony Samuel said. “We had a lot of issues.”

A state-of-the-art video scoreboard, FieldTurf surface and new lighting have been installed at Houck Stadium. Houck also has been repainted.
“The turf looks good. It will be important,” Samuel said. “The scoreboard is a nice addition.”

The FieldTurf was a necessity because Houck Stadium’s original artificial playing surface, installed more than a decade ago, had become so worn that it was potentially dangerous from an injury standpoint.

“It was real worn out,” All-American junior safety Tylor Brock said. “It’s going to be nice to play on the new one.”

Houck Stadium featured a temporary scoreboard the past three years that was among the smallest in college football.

The original scoreboard was removed before the 2008 season because of construction of a dormitory at the west end of Houck Stadium. The ground floor of the building houses a game-day locker room and athletic training room for the football program.

“It’s really nice,” Brock said of the new scoreboard. “I couldn’t believe they actually went through with that.”

Improvements to the Rosengarten Athletic Complex, which are nearly complete, include a renovated locker room with more than double the space of the previous one and renovated coaches offices, meeting rooms and athletic training areas.

“The locker room was real cramped,” Brock said.

Southeast players and coaches spend much more time at the Rosengarten Athletic Complex — where the practice fields are located — than they do at Houck Stadium.

“The locker room is going to be real nice,” Samuel said. “It was so tight in there. It’s going to be a lot better for the players.

“I think all that is a huge morale boost, and functional as well.”

Samuel said the improved facilities already have benefited recruiting.

“It helped us when we were able to show [potential recruits] the plans,” Samuel said.

The upgrades are part of the university’s $59 million-plus campuswide renovation plan that included more than $2 million in renovations to Houck and Rosengarten.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Samuel said.

Brock said he appreciates the university’s support for the football program with the upgraded facilities as the Redhawks prepare for their Sept. 3 season opener at home against regional rival Southern Illinois, but he knows wins can’t be bought.

“It’s nice, but it won’t affect how we play,” he said.

Source: Southeast Missourian

Original Source: whig.com

By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Installation began Thursday morning on the new artificial turf playing surface at Flinn Stadium.

Materials for the project arrived at the stadium Tuesday, and the installation crew came to Quincy Wednesday from St. Louis to make final preparations to put the material into place.

The work is expected to be completed before the football season begins this fall.

Dennis Peters, director of maintenance for the Quincy School District, said a series of renovations to the underground portion of the field got under way in June and moved along at a good pace, finishing about 10 days ahead of schedule. This set the stage for the installation of the new playing surface.

The Quincy School Board approved the $772,460 field renovation project in early June. At that time, the board voted 4-2 to spend $377,800 in life-safety funds for the underground repairs. On top of that, $394,660 in donated funds will be used to install the artificial turf playing surface instead of natural grass.

The underground work involved addressing some issues related to drainage problems, including the shifting of some sub-surface electrical wires.

Superintendent Lonny Lemon told the School Board last week that while deconstructing the old grass field, the work crew found some “surprises” under the surface.

“They found it had virtually twice the amount of sand that they had thought it was going to have, which complicated matters and probably also led to some of the problems we’ve been experiencing in the last 15 years or so,” Lemon said.
“And there was actually an electrical box of wiring that they hit eight inches below the surface of the playing field — right at dead center of the field,” he added. “That was a scare that day for that fellow. Fortunately, the power was off.”
Peters said the electrical box contained wires leading to the scoreboard. Other scoreboard wires were only 10 inches below the surface, posing a potential safety concern.

“Anytime you have something electrical buried that’s not three feet down — or at least 30 inches or so — it’s always a concern,” Peters said.

Peters said all wires were relocated as needed to improve safety, including the electrical wires used to power the field’s lights. The electric wires were encased in conduit and buried deep in the ground to help protect them in the future from possible abrasions and to guard against potential safety concerns.

Putting the wires in conduit also makes for easier future maintenance, Peters said.

“That way, if we have a problem with our wiring some day, we can pull it back out and rerun it. We can take care of our problems if we have any.” He said the work crew also installed new drainage tiles underground to help improve water runoff from the field.

Peters said the large amount of sand found under the old field required some extra stabilization work as the repair crew prepared the ground for the new playing surface.

“They had to add a little concrete mix with it to firm up the ground up before they laid the rock,” he said.

The rocks were then rolled evenly to provide a smooth bed for the artificial turf.

Quincy University has pledged $75,000 toward the cost of installing the artificial turf. QU made this offer in exchange for being allowed to play its home football games at Flinn Stadium.

QU’s athletic director, Marty Bell, told The Herald-Whig the team intends to start using the field this fall and will keep using it for at least three years but possibly longer through a 10-year lease arrangement being worked out with the district.
Representatives of booster groups that support the field renovations raised another $50,000 in pledges for the project. That left $269,660 still to be raised for the installation of artificial turf. However, George Crickard, president of the Quincy Public Schools Foundation, told the School Board in June the foundation is committing itself to providing that amount in funds still to be raised from supporters.

The School Board last month awarded a $377,800 contract to Byrne & Jones Sports to carry out the underground repairs. The $394,660 contract for the turf installation was awarded to Field Turf of St. Louis, which will install a state-of-the-art synthetic field with an anticipated life expectancy of 12 years.

The district expects to save money each year by not having to maintain a grass field. Those savings are projected to amount to about $192,000 over the life of the field.

Source: whig.com

Original Source: KSDK.com