From the Houston Chronicle,
Sept. 18, 2003, 12:35AM
Clear Creek officials working to keep stadium afloat
By MK BOWER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Like something out of a Disney film, an army of 300 volunteers spent 16 hours replacing rusted and corroded bolts, fortifying floor beams, re-welding steel brackets and adding chain link fences at Clear Creek ISD's 47-year-old District Stadium over the summer.
The effort was a direct result of engineers deeming the facility unsafe, which came on the heels of a $20.4 million bond election for the construction of a new athletic facility being defeated by voters in May.
There were back slaps aplenty when the facility passed inspection after restoration, but the real issue at District Stadium remains unresolved.
For the second time in as many weeks, one of the district's three schools -- Clear Creek, Clear Lake and Clear Brook -- has relocated a home game so that the mangled grass surface at the stadium can recover.
Clear Lake was to host Jersey Village on Friday but instead will play at Pasadena Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Clear Brook moved an earlier game with Dobie after hosting Strake Jesuit the previous Thursday in subpar conditions.
"If the field is wet, it's unplayable," Clear Brook coach Edward Arledge said. "When I called (Dobie coach) Mike Stephens and we talked the previous Friday (Sept. 5), I told him I had no problem with playing our home game at Pasadena Memorial.
"Asking our kids to play on a surface like that is like asking them to go to war with a short stick and one arm tied behind their back. God bless (CCISD athletic director) Bill Dawes; he's working his heart out trying to get that surface ready to play. But there is only so much you can do."
The problem with the playing surface at District Stadium is the same as with the facility itself -- it's old. The crown on the field has worn down over the years, and the drainage system is substandard. Mix in heavy rain earlier this month and the proximity of the stadium to the coast and to sea level, and you have perhaps the worst grass surface around.
Dawes and his facilities crew have worked feverishly to restore the field. No one has played at District Stadium since Clear Lake lost to Baytown Lee 27-0 on Sept. 11, a game in which sizable pits of mud stained the memory more than anything done by the players or coaches.
With Clear Lake shifting its game this weekend, Dawes is hopeful the lack of traffic, plus the care of his staff, will yield a presentable surface when Clear Brook hosts Smiley on Sept. 26. Of course, if it rains in the interim, all bets are off.
"We have a two-week phase here, and we have a two-week phase (Oct. 4-16) because they (the teams) are all away one week," Dawes said. "We're going to get it back in shape, one way or another, (even) if I have to go out there and dig myself. What we need is a lot of photosynthesis."
To Clear Creek coach Aubrey Schulz, the solution is simple: AstroPlay.
"Over the years, the drainage has gotten worse, we've gotten more rain, and we have more usage on that field," said Schulz, in his 19th year at Clear Creek. "There are always going to be three teams in this district, plus you are always going to have the rain. Grass is not meant to withstand that much usage. That surface should be synthetic."
Even before Clear Brook opened and began playing at District Stadium 12 years ago, Schulz noticed the wear and tear on the grass surface. With three schools sharing the facility, plus the array of other problems with the grass, a synthetic turf seems logical.
Schulz estimates a cost of about $700,000 for AstroPlay to be installed at District Stadium. That corresponds with the $752,000 Katy ISD paid for its new AstroPlay surface at Rhodes Stadium (as part of a $1.3 million stadium renovation) and what Galena Park ISD paid for the turf at its $21 million facility, which opened in 2002.
With an unsuccessful bond issue in the recent past, there are concerns where the money will come from. Whatever the case, everyone involved is tired of stopgap solutions.
"You're going to have to do something eventually," Schulz said. "You can't Band-Aid it forever. The Band-Aids are becoming big, long strips of tape replaced by braces and casts. Something is going to have to be done, and we have to realize that fact."
Said Clear Lake coach Troy Aduddell: "When you have three high schools, and you're playing on it constantly, that surface is going to get torn up. Hopefully it will get done one way or the other, be it through community support or whatever we have to do."