Artificial
Athletic Turf ‘Sprouts’ in Las Vegas
VALLEY HS – Ah the late summer, when high school
sports take off again, the cheers of cheerleaders are heard
anew and the boys of the gridiron hit the freshly replanted
grass.
Hey wait…somebody took the natural grass.
Water conservation is a way of life with the recent drought
emergency gripping the Mojave. So it only seemed a matter
of time before the Clark County School District and the
local Parks & Recreation departments replaced their
turf with artificial grass to save water. First it was
the City of Las Vegas’s Ed Fountain Park and then
it was Valley High School. Even though it is very early
in the high school athletic year, the comments coming in
from the artificial grass field so far has been mostly
positive.
“It’s been getting rave reviews,” said
Mark John, athletic director at Valley High School. “[Bishop]
Gorman has mostly used the field so far and they are pleased,
as are their opponents.”
According to John, the only complaints so far have been
that the rubber surface gets “a little hot in the
afternoon,” and “the rubber gets caught in
the uniforms which could break a dryer.”
“We just keep it cool and tell the players to ‘shake
out their jerseys’ before washing them,” he
said. “Otherwise the kids love it.”
The Reno, Nev.-based Nevada Interscholastic Activities
Association, the governing body of high school sports,
has no official stance for or against the use of artificial
turf for high school sports. However NIAA Assistant Director
Donnie Nelson thinks it’s a great idea.
“That’s some really good stuff,” Nelson
said. “I think it is great to save money on maintenance
with a multipurpose artificial turf. This style of rubber
turf plays just like regular grass.”
In fact, Nelson said Bishop Manogue in Reno, Nev. plays
on artificial turf and the 2003 Nevada State Football Championships
at the University of Nevada at Reno were played on artificial
turf.
“A lot of universities are going to this type of
turf,” Nelson said.
“I think it will be the wave of the future,” John
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