‘Nobody plays on grass anymore:’ Turf fields coming to 2 high schools

Stafford County Board of Supervisors and the Stafford County School Board came together to break ground for new turf fields at two high schools.

A ceremony was held at the AJ Slye Memorial Stadium behind North Stafford High School to celebrate a new turf field that is expected to be completed before the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.

The new turf fields will replace the grass fields where football and field hockey are played. Concerns about the safety of the fields and equity between schools in the county were arguments presented in a grassroots campaign spearheaded by Carol Leicher and Margaret Lowery. Both women had been assistant coaches for the girls' field hockey teams at North Stafford.

"We watched the girls struggle and listened to visiting teams such as Stafford and Mountain View come and listened to coaches, players, and parents from those schools complain about 'oh we got to play on grass," said Lowery. "Our girls had the advantage of playing on grass, but when they went away to every other school other than Colonial Forge, nobody in Division Five or Six plays on grass anymore."

While both Lowery and Leicher spearheaded the campaign, it was when the duo made their arguments to the county School Board and Board of Supervisors. Eventually, their efforts began to bore fruit. Officials found funds to accommodate the two schools, which the Board approved by Supervisors on April 12.

At the ceremony, Lowery acknowledged that while she and Leicher drove the campaign, it was more than just the duo that made the event happen.

"We spearheaded it, but the parents got together, they started contacting the supervisors and the school board, " said Lowery. "Ultimately, it was the School Board and the Supervisors who both went through a lot of discussions. They didn't make a quick decision, and the credit goes to those two boards together. We got it started, but those boards are the ones that made it happen."

North Stafford and Colonial Forge were the last two high schools in the county to have turf fields installed. Before then, the schools had to either make do with the grass fields, which inhibited the teams' ability to play on turf fields or rent such fields elsewhere.

The fields are scheduled to be completed by August before the 2022-2023 Fall semester begins for the county schools on August 9, 2022.