FARMINGTON – The Mt Blue High School All Sports Boosters are raising funds to install an athletic turf field as a replacement for the campus’s single competition field.
“If any of you have been to a soccer game, football game, lacrosse game, those are all played on the competition field,” Echo McDonough mentioned during her presentation about this field replacement project at the Rotary Club Meeting on August 31.
McDonough is the Vice-President of the All Sports Boosters, a group that contributes to funding sports safety equipment, uniforms, and more—which is a significant undertaking. McDonough shared that the cost of game balls alone can be up to $7,000 per year. Thanks to this group, student athletes do not have to pay, meaning all kids have the option to participate.
McDonough emphasized the number of teams sharing the high school’s only competition field. For fall sports alone, she reported that there are three football teams and four soccer teams playing on one field. Gym classes and community use are also to be considered, although these are currently restricted in sports off-seasons.
The field is currently only usable during certain seasons for safety reasons, due to the water damage from drainage problems and time allotted for repairs. MBHS must often rent field space from other facilities like Thomas College and Kents Hill School, meaning the teams lose the home field advantage.
“We’re really at the mercy of the weather,” McDonough said in an interview. “We don’t want our student athletes playing on a field that’s unsafe.”
Because of this caution, spring sports athletes are not able to play on a field for a large portion of the season. “Our boys and girls lacrosse teams are often at a disadvantage because we have to practice in the gym for so long,” MBHS Athletic Director Cyndi Pratt said. “We don’t have access to an outside field.”
This project, estimated at $1.6 million, will repair the field’s extensive drainage issues and replace the grass with an artificial turf field. McDonough acknowledged the intimidating cost, but underlined how the benefit of this inevitable project would far outweigh it. She described it as a “complete overhaul” of the field.
A turf field would enable the athletes to play on the field earlier in the spring and allow for summertime use. The field is currently usable for just three months of the year; with a turf field, students could play on it for nine months. “If we had a turf field, I think it would increase access for all of our students, as well as our physical education program,” Pratt said.
Turf has many benefits: it dries easily, can be snowblowed in the winter, and is padded for safety. Teams would be able to get on the field as soon as the snow can be cleared.
“We want to make our school more competitive which ultimately benefits the district and the community by bringing in people that are excited about our school,” McDonough said in her presentation at the Rotary Club Meeting.
With the new field, Mt Blue would be one of the only schools in this area to have a turf field, meaning it would be possible to open it up for smaller districts in the area to use, like Rangeley and Mt Abram, as well as local club teams. It would also allow MBHS to host tournaments, an effective way to bring people to the Farmington area which would have a clear benefit for local businesses.
The project has been approved by the RSU 9 school board and the school has hired a sports architecture firm to design the field. The All Sports Boosters are hoping to raise as much money as possible to minimize the cost for the community. Donations are welcome and appreciated, but they are searching for a large corporate donor to cover the majority of the costs.
“Looking for a large donor would really help us to kickstart additional grassroots fundraising campaigns,” McDonough explained. They are currently waiting on the school board’s decision on naming rights in order to further the donor search.
To contribute to this project, please contact the All Sports Boosters at mballsportsboosters@mtbluersd.org.
Editor’s Note: this story was updated to show the correct figure for annual costs of game balls.
