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Turf replacement project begins at McGuffey

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Work is underway on a major renovation project at McGuffey High School’s football stadium.

Highlanders athletic director and head football coach Ed Dalton said Tuesday that a new lighting system was installed last week and the synthetic turf on the football field was torn out this week.

“The project started with a new scoreboard,” Dalton said. “It was basically a take-down-and-put-up project. There are still a couple of electrical issues with that.

“The new lights were put up, and I don’t know exactly how much brighter the new lights are, but it seems like they’re 10 times brighter. This might be the same lighting system that Trinity has.”

Dalton said the turf project is still in the “deconstruction phase.” The old green FieldTurf has been removed.

“You forget how many pounds of those little rubber pellets are in a football field until they pull them all up,” Dalton said. “They still have to do a perc test to make sure the drainage is what it’s supposed to be. When that’s done, because they don’t have to start from scratch, it could be as little as four or five working days for the new turf to be in place.”

That turf with be like no other field in the WPIAL. It will be alternating shades of gray every five yards. The end zones with be blue with gold lettering.

The final phase of the renovation project is to replace the running track around the football field. It will be blue with white lane lines. Dalton is optimistic that the project will be completed on time.

“Hopefully, we can have everything done by July 1,” Dalton said.

Dalton said this is the fifth turf replacement project he has seen in his many years of coaching.

“I can remember when I was an assistant at Erie Prep and we scrimmaged at Mt. Lebanon in 1980. Mt. Lebanon was one of the first high schools with artificial turf,” Dalton said, “and I remember thinking how crazy that was. Now, it seems like every school has turf.”

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