Seven years in the works and the ‘Revive the Tribe’ project is finally breaking ground this summer at Boone High School.
“We are moving forward right now with the artificial turf surface,” Athletic Director Kevin Demer explained. “We expect to begin really removing the existing the grass field in about two weeks.”
The turf field is just one of five areas the athletic project will improve upon –including the audio board on the scoreboard, rubberizing the track, updating concessions and adding new lights on the baseball field.
But for the football team the largest impact stems from the new turf.
“This spring game I messed my ankle up stepping in one of the whole’s so that wasn’t very good,” rising senior OLB Carver Reeves said of the grass. “Grass needs to go and put the turf in.”
“The biggest thing is the time you put into it the grass field of whether you paint it, mow it, taking care of it—it’s definitely a time consuming thing,” Boone Head Coach Andy Johnson said of the upkeep of grass. “And really the worry in the fall, especially through September you are just constantly worried is if your field is going to be playable [with all the weather].”
Last fall the Braves lost a home game to Wekiva, because rain made the field unplayable. These concerns evaporate with turf which is set to be complete mid-august.
“I just think that kids play a little more energetic on it, I think practices will be better so that’s what I am excited for,” Johnson said.
The field is also utilized by pop warner teams from Conway and South Orlando, the school’s lacrosse and soccer teams—so it was time to move towards a more sustainable option and the community stepped up opening their pocketbooks.
“Our whole community came together to round up about 1.3 million dollars to make this whole field happen,” Reeves added.
When the field and renovations are complete Boone will be the second public high school to have artificial turf in Orange County.
“Boone is a unique place to begin with—you know we have an older campus, center of the city basically –a unique layout –I think this just ups the anty for just what we have here at the school and easily have the premier facility in Orange County after this.”
The stadium improvements and field are set to be complete before the team’s home opener against Lake Nona on September 1st. If you want to learn more about the project or find out how to support Boone High School you can visit Revivethetribe.org.