A front end loader levels the playing field.

The Suwannee High School track infield is undergoing extensive renovation in the form of dethatching in preparation for this coming fall school session.

The facilities department of Suwannee County Schools is handling the renovation of the field, along with many other projects. There are about 60 workers in the department who do maintenance, landscape and custodial work. They are also community growth planners, construction managers and service technicians.

Mark Carver, director of facilities for Suwannee County Schools, explained the improvement process at SHS that started on Wednesday, July 6.

“Over time, thatch builds up,” Carver said, referring to the turf grass on the playing field. “At the top of the dirt you get thatch, which is the dead grass, so you end up with peat.”

Lawn thatch is a landscape term for the layer of dead turf grass tissue that lies between the green grass that you see on top and the soil surface below. It consists of dead stems, leaves and roots that have collected into thick, squishy balls.

Consequently, the grass feels spongy when you walk on it, he said. If the field, which is mostly used for football practice, is too spongy it makes it hard for the players to run on it and it can cause injuries like twisted ankles. When this thatching effect happens, it takes more water to maintain the field, Carver explained.

“Periodically, over the years, a playing field will become ‘out of level’”, he said. “The way to bring it back and start again is to tear it up, get some of this out, and then the sprigs will spring back over and cover it back up, because this is Bermuda grass. Then you’ll get a good, firm playing surface.”

Another option, Carver said, would have been to haul dirt in and top-dress the field, but after a while it would raise the surface too high.

“Sooner or later, you’ve got to do something with it. You need a firm, level surface and the only way to get it is to do this,” Carver said of the work going on at the field.

Carver stated they did the same renovations to the football field at Langford Stadium about six years ago.

With the lighting around the high school track field now, it is a possibility that future soccer games will be played on the newly renovated field, according to Carver.

“It would be more economical,” he said.

Langford Stadium, he said, never gets a break between all the back-to-back sports games, the recreation center events, and all the summer leagues using the field. The infield, he said, has dirt in the middle of it due to over-use.

“Everybody plays in the middle,” he said, laughing. “It’s hard for us to get the game field in the shape that we need it with everybody playing on it all year long.”

By moving soccer practice and soccer games over to the high school’s newly renovated field inside the track, Carver said they would be able to get Langford Field back into shape.