SUMMERSVILLE — While standing on the Memorial Stadium track Sunday afternoon, two Nicholas County High School students casually tossed around a football.

When the 2007-08 school year commences this fall, the footballs and soccer balls will again be filling the air at the 30-year-old facility, and athletes will have a new artificial surface with which to cushion each footstep.

Just as they flock to the stadium for home games during the school year, interested observers from the Summersville community assembled Sunday for a ground-breaking ceremony for the Prograss turf project that is the result of the “Turf For The Kids” drive undertaken last October.

Gary Roach, who will be a senior running back/safety for the Grizzlies this fall, says he, his fellow 12th-graders — about 15 in all — and their younger teammates can’t wait to sample the artificial surface that will replace the worn-out grass field on which they previously played.

“We think we should have a very good season, and it will be good to start it off with a new field and new scoreboard,” Roach said. “We want to tell everybody thanks a lot for everything they’ve done. It’s really important.”

Coach Gene Morris’ squad will have a home scrimmage Aug. 11 against Scott, a game that may be moved to the evening. Then, the Grizzlies will host Buckhannon-Upshur in the first home football contest Friday, Aug. 31.

“It’s great the community has stepped up and provided these opportunities,” Morris says.

Of course, the high school gridders will make up only a small portion of the student-athletes who will hone their skills on the new surface. Other teams and organizations who play there include soccer teams and a variety of middle school and youth sports units, in addition to the band using the stadium.

Among those recognized Sunday were numerous individuals who answered the call when Summersville Middle School football coach Rocky Roberts, NCHS assistant principal/athletics director Bill Dobbins, and SMS athletics director Jack Cole first broached the subject last fall. The number of those providing money and/or time reached about 100, and it included mothers, grant writers, maintenance workers, school personnel, representatives of governmental entities, and businessmen. Main financial contributors included the Nicholas County Board of Education, the City of Summersville, the Nicholas County Commission, Geld-Wen, Seelinger Grant and the state of West Virginia. Original committee members were Roberts, Dobbins, Cole, Bruce Tallamy, Steve Ferguson, Tony Mayes, Greg Takes, Gary Wharton, Rocky Smith, P.K. Milam, Kevin Perkins, Steve Antoline and Gary Withee.

“Our little community did this,” said Roberts, echoing comments by Dobbins, Greg Tucker and Superintendent Luther Baker. “We did it for the kids.”

The school board gave the project final approval in April, according to Roberts. Local resident Carson Haney began moving dirt May 1. On May 14, Pittsburgh-based Prograss arrived to begin work, and the company is expected to start spreading gravel for the drainage system May 22. They expect to begin laying the turf around June 1, with a targeted completion date a month later.

While original estimates placed the project at close to $700,000, the competitive bidding process resulted in a price tag of closer to $500,000. As an added bonus, a clay base was found underneath the old surface, trimming $5,000 to $10,000 from the cost.

“In 1977, this was built by coal companies, so we were expecting coal refuse underneath,” said Roberts. “It was all clay, which is great.”

Prograss is used in stadiums at Parkersburg and at Wheeling Island Stadium, home of the WVSSAC Super Six championship series.

Local businessman Steve Ferguson, one of the individuals who spearheaded the fundraising drive, says artificial surface just makes sense.

“I think it’s the way of the future, and I’m glad Nicholas County is taking a lead role,” he said. He said the turf is the “most cost-effective method for boards of education to supply kids with opportunities to play.” Ferguson added that he was pleasantly surprised with the way the community came together to support the project. “I didn’t know what to think when we first started, but it was like a snowball going downhill.”

And it makes sense for yet another reason.

“Moms, you won’t have dirty uniforms to wash,” pledged Dobbins.

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