Antioch Community High School is bringing revolutionary changes to the football stadium for its 101st school year. After having issues with McMillen Field for the past nine years, ACHS’s Facilities Committee decided in August 2014 that it was time for a change. A split filament turf field, eight lane track and new field equipment are just a few of the new additions for the two million dollar field renovation.

After three failed attempts at repairing McMillen Field, an idea in the Facilities Committee arose in 2010 regarding renovating the main stadium instead of spending money to repair McMillen.

ACHS Athletic Director Steve Schoenfelder said, “It was a fast track project; it all came together very quickly.”

Following the school board’s approval in September was six weeks of planning that consisted of creating two groups: one group made up of the Business Manager, Facilities Manager and Mr. Schoenfelder and the second group made up of ACHS varsity football coach Brian Glashagel, varsity field hockey coach Terry Dewing and varsity soccer coach Marni Polakow. The two groups each visited 18 schools in two days located both in Iowa and Illinois to check out the different types of turf fields and decide on what would work best for ACHS athletes.

The coaches and managers decided that a split filament turf would be the the best fit. This type of turf is high quality, so rubber will not fly into the air when the ground is struck during a game. Outlining the turf will be tick marks that go all the way around the field so that string can be drawn across them to paint over for different sports. Besides the football, soccer and field hockey lines, there will also be marks for lacrosse in case ACHS adds a lacrosse team in the future.

Along with the tick marks on the outside of the field, there will be four logos located on the outside corners of the field: football, soccer, field hockey and track. A group comprised of students, faculty and parents of athletes met to decide what to put in these four corners, and came to the decision that there would be no better way to represent these sports teams than painting their logo on the turf.

A substantial amount of work went into the preparation for the renovation, especially in the field alone.

“The field stays as nice as the work you put into it,” Schoenfelder said.

Construction started with a groundbreaking in March, marking the beginning of ACHS’s six month journey to becoming a school with one of the premier stadiums in the state. Included in the renovation is moving the football field 15 feet to the north to accommodate for future state plans of widening Route 173, resizing the track from six to eight lanes, moving the away team bleachers east by four feet, putting a shot put and archery range behind the left field of the varsity baseball field, a new facility for long jump and triple jump, moving the pole vault facility north with the field, redoing the parking lot and fencing, putting in new drainage and converting the pond on the North side of the football field from a retention to a detention pond.

According to Schoenfelder, the estimated total of the renovation costs two million dollars. There is a total of $24,000 in donations for the renovation, as well as $10,000 donated by Sequoit Pride. The cost that is not covered by donations is being paid for out of the school’s budget.

The new field will also have many high quality additions of equipment, such as new hurdles, international plexiglass soccer goals and four hookups for new water hydration. An anonymous ACHS vendor donated $31,000 towards purchasing this equipment for the field.

The field is expected to be completed by Sept. 1, 2015. Spring and fall sports that require access to the stadium will be using other facilities such as McMillen Field, Antioch Upper Grade School, Lakes Community High School and host home meets and games at other schools until the work is completely finished. ACHS is getting a fresh new look to go with a fresh start for another 100 years.