In the spring and summer of 2015, Antioch Community High School put an astroturf field into the stadium. Most of the athletes who get to use the field love it because it is a great surface to play on. However, it creates a problem. When the teams all have to share the turf equally, dividing turf time can be quite difficult to set up.

The current system in setting up the schedule for the turf is that the head coaches of field hockey, soccer and football all sit down and discuss when they have games and when they want to use the turf for practices. This also does not include the marching band and they practice every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 at night. This system does seem like it is the best way to distribute the turf, but sometimes the head coaches butt heads when they are deciding who gets the turf. Each coach wants their team to play on the turf because the athletes always want to be on there.

“Head coaches of soccer, football and field hockey sit down in the summertime and we go through our game schedule and then we plot out practice times on the turf,” varsity field hockey coach Terry Dewing said.

Since most of the athletes love using the turf, they all want to use it and sometimes the athletes will complain about not getting enough time on the field. Athletes sometimes feel that they are missing out on the turf because, for the most part, the lower levels never see time on the turf. Varsity uses the turf everyday and this makes the JV and freshman teams continue to practice at McMillen. However, the athletes who want to play on it the most are the varsity athletes.

“I do not believe the turf is shared equally,” senior Gabriel Tijerina said. “The soccer team uses it once for practice every couple weeks and we have played a lot of 4:30 games and field hockey usually plays after us.”

Coaches also have to take account the marching band practicing on the field as well. The marching band even takes the harder, later time so they can get their practice in. The marching band needs the field because they need to know where to be on the field in their formation during their performance. Sometimes they get kicked off or have to practice later because of games that other teams play on the field.

In addition to all the high school activities and sports that play on the turf, the middle school and even Lakes gets to play on the turf. The athletic director wants other kids to have the experience of playing on the turf and give them opportunities. The turf is more of a community stadium at times then it is an ACHS stadium.

“He has days that he blocked off, [and] has the feder schools come on,” Dewing said.

Athletes love using the turf because it is a great surface to play on and it is like the new toy that the high school just got. Athletes all want to play on the turf as much as they can for as long as they can because they are only here for four years. The turf is equally distributed with a great system that is put in place because it gives the coaches the power to figure it out instead of someone else. Some people think it is unfair because they do not use it as much as they want, but it was up to their coach to schedule the times. The turf is a great addition to the school’s facilities and this requires teams to share because there is only one turf field.