Christiansburg football team to get new practice field
The "sloping" field at the north end of Christiansburg High School's campus, now completely graded. Photo by Travis Williams | The Burgs
In 2011, the Christiansburg High School football team advanced to play on the grandest stage possible, facing Briar Woods in the Virginia High School League Group AA state championship.
Thanks to the efforts of the school’s Touchdown Club and many community members, soon the team will also have a grand stage to practice on.
The group’s goal is to construct a regulation-size and fully irrigated field — replacing the existing area on the north end of campus that club members said was full of “gullies and weeds” — at no cost to the school.
“The Touchdown Club feels like over the past three or four years we’ve had the best team, and we certainly didn’t have the best practice facilities. They deserve to have the best that they can have,” said club president Tony Ashe.
Once the project is complete, Christiansburg High will become the second high school in the New River Valley to have an irrigated field to practice on.
Blacksburg High School currently has three irrigated fields, which were the result of an agreement between Montgomery County Public Schools and New River United Soccer Association, according to New River United Director of Operations Chris Rich. Though Rich admitted the improvements took place prior to his time with the club, he said he believed NRU put “quite a bit of money,” into irrigating and reseeding the fields.
For Christiansburg High, the football program’s success in recent seasons may have spurned the latest movement to fully develop their practice field, but that area of the campus has been a problem for decades.
Lance Reynolds, a 1999 graduate, said he remembered searching for foul balls amidst cattails during baseball season in the area known then as “the swamp,” as well as running sprints up “swamp hill” during football practice.
“The kids in the back [of the sprint lines] were just trying not to step down in the water and the mud,” Reynolds said.
The swamp disappeared in 2004 when developer Roger Woody supplied the dirt and equipment needed to fill in, level off and seed the area. Over the years, however, the field developed a downward slope toward its northwest corner, which made running pass routes nearly impossible.
Tilted terrain aside, head football coach Tim Cromer said the combination of dry summers and a lack of an irrigation system left the turf “brown and crunchy” even before the team’s preseason August practices began. In an effort to preserve the northern field for late season practices, Cromer said the team practiced in other locations until the first day of October.
He stressed that the quality of the practice field was very important because of the volume of time the varsity and junior varsity players — often around 80 — spend on it.
“We spend five games on the game field. We spend 52 or 60 [practices] on a practice field,” Cromer said.
Senior running back and linebacker De’Quan Green-Gause remembered how that much practice time affected those brown and crunchy fields toward the end of the 2011 season.
“It was just a bunch of holes and dirt,” Green-Gause said.
This spring the Touchdown Club decided it was time to change that experience and began calling on local businesses for help.
So far, that call has been answered.
The civil engineering firm of Gay and Neel Inc. supplied the proper design for the grading of the field, while David Hagan of Shelor Motor Mile donated the equipment and workers, which he estimated at an almost $15,000 value, to make that grading and development happen.
Once the field is in place, Fenton Well Drilling and Pump Service plans to put a 21-head, in-ground sprinkler system in place, along with drilling a well, which will use a pump donated by Gould’s Pumps and plumbing donated by 84 Lumber, to feed it.
Diana Fenton estimated the value of such a project to be worth close to $35,000 and said that once the system is in place, it will prevent the school from ever being charged for metered water. She added that they hope to always be able to use the well to irrigate the neighboring baseball field.
The group plans to have the field seeded by the end of June, with a short-term plan of having the field ready for use by the football team in early October and a long-term plan of having the field fenced and fully lit, enabling the team to practice at night.
While their goal was to give the players a field they could be proud to practice on, the Touchdown Club members said they were most proud of the way the people in the community had rallied together.
“The way things are economically now, where people are constantly looking to the government for money, ….here it’s the community doing what needs to be done,” said Touchdown Club member Joe Galante.
Cromer said this wasn’t the first time he had seen the club and community show such a high level of support during his 10 years as head coach. He cited the team’s new locker room, weight room and $17,000 worth of upgraded helmets as changes which only occurred because of the group’s efforts.
The players have also noticed the club’s most recent efforts and the accompanying equipment moving around the fields during the football camp the team hosted earlier this week.
“It shows the people in the town care,” Green-Gause said. “They want us to have the best practice experience.”
The Roanoke Times | 381-1643
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Interested juxtaposition. People complain about “pay to play” being a hardship, but it’s OK to shaft teachers with no pay raise, rising retirement and health care expenses, and more out-of-pocket expenses over the years. Hardship for teachers? What hardship?
Then everyone rallies to throw large sums of money, $35,000 or more, for a deluxe PRACTICE field to pamper all of 80 football players. What’s wrong with this picture?
This comes on the heels of the school board “finding” extra funds in this year’s budget to carry over into next year to cover sports funding, even though academics are still taking a major hit. Yeah, yeah, tell me about how sports are so important and mean so much and keep a handful of kids in school so they can practice on that well-watered lighted field. Tell me that learning about teamwork and winning a state championship does so much toward getting ahead in life and does so much for a great future, more than getting personal attention in a classroom from a teacher who has the time to devote to his or her students.
But the latest message is “The football coach is more important than the classroom teacher.” and “We care more about parents who whine and less about having functioning school buses.” It would be right to vote out the current school board, but why would anyone want to — they bent to their will and did what the whiners wanted.
Comment by Pat N. Hall — June 25, 2012 @ 1:25 pm
Obviously some people don’t read articles completely nor understand or appreciate a community ralling for its student-athletes well-being!! This practice field was unacceptable to use any longer in its current poor condition. This outstanding effort of the community to band together and make a safe practice facility come to fruition took nothing from the Montgomery County School system budget. This work had NOTHING to do with “pay to play!!” This project had NOTHING to do with teacher raises or employment. This well intentioned work of art had nothing to do with retirement, health care expenses, teacher hardships nor out of pocket expenses of ANYONE!!!!! This will provide a safe place for CHS student-athletes to practice their sports, nothing more….nothing less. Why do some people……..cause chaos and hard feelings and make negative comments as others work quietly to take care of our young and women in our community?
Comment by Mike Watson — June 26, 2012 @ 1:41 pm
Well deserved..you gotta think they’ve had a lot of success and have put a lot of butts in those seats so they deserve this. No one pays to watch teachers teach.
Comment by Austin — June 26, 2012 @ 4:47 pm
Thank-You Mike Watson for your comments and for getting the facts correct! Also, the artice said that Blacksburg has not one, not two, but THREE irrigated fields….yet somehow it is just terrible that the Christiansburg Community came together and DONATED their time and money to give Christiansburg ONE irrigated practice field!! Unbelievable!!! Thank-You to the community for your DONATIONS of time, money, and manpower so that Christiansburg can have ONE nice irrigated practice field to be proud of.
Comment by Sports Mom — June 27, 2012 @ 11:17 am
Nothing like missing the point — no one could afford “pay to play” but it has been ok to shaft the teachers for the past several years. The school board made major cuts to the academic side of the budget, eliminating 25 positions, but didn’t touch the athletic budget, all $400,000 of it. So sports wins out over academics and everyone is happy.
At the same time, there is great pride over the $35,000 expenditure for a practice field for 80 students. Would there be as big a push to raise that much money for a computer lab in CHS or library books or something else to help ALL the students on the academic side?
And please stop with the “Blacksburg gets everything” junk. The story isn’t totally accurate — the fields are actually town recreation fields at Kipps elementary and part of the irrigation system was funded by the New River United Soccer Association and its predecessors, from funds paid by rec and travel soccer parents.
Comment by Pat N. Hall — June 27, 2012 @ 11:17 pm
And while we are at it — the water might be free, but will the school system (taxpayers) be paying to run the pump? Same for the lights on the field? Will the Apco bill be sent to the School Board office? Taxpayers are subsidizing sports to the tune of $400,000 while there is discussion of closing a school next year and something has to give. Your SB member Penny Franklin has on many occasions talked about the need to replace school buses because the aging buses won’t start on cold mornings to get children to school — but there is no money in the budget to pay for them. But I’ll bet the CHS football team traveled to away games in the newest buses in the fleet because it wouldn’t look good for them to be stranded far away from the garage late at night.
So it is one thing to be proud of a deluxe practice field for 80 students, but put it in the perspective of the whole county and the budget crisis and what $35,000 would do in C’burg Primary.
Comment by Pat N. Hall — June 28, 2012 @ 7:55 am
I have been giggling for days at Patricia’s retort to the previous posts. Obviously reading comprehension was NOT a strong suit of hers back in the day. It is clear now to me……..she doesn’t want current/future students to misunderstand the written word and struggle with understanding it. She did raise some good points though…….how was the REST of the Blacksburg fields irrigation system paid for? HMM? Who pays the town water bill for these 3 fields? HMM? To clarify another false point of Patricia, a recent Roanoke Times article stated that 7-8 “new” buses were being ordered from the current MCPS budget. ALL the work was donated labor and materials……Patricia there is NOT a 35,000 dollar expenditure!!! Due to the arrogance and biting statements made by Patricia, I have completed so homework on her statements. Metered water is VERY expensive to water 1 athletic field. If watered normally the water bill will run thousands of dollars annually. Blacksburg has 3 sprinkler fed fields it sounds like probably on town meters…..and probably paid for by the MCPS. Regardless of who foots the bill it is VERY expensive these days to water a field BUT it is a neccesity. I spoke with a veteran owner of a well driling company and asked him the monthly cost for electric on the pump for a well feeding an athletic field. He said it would be very inexpensive and comparable to a large household. Another words a mere fraction of the monthly costs compared to metered water feeding a practice field. To clear up the next incorrect statement by Patricia……I drove by this practice field today, there are no lights present. I found out that later down the road, this group envisions 2 stands of lights and a fence. They said though it may NEVER happen! You obviously have a real problem with progress and safety for our student-athletes within Montgomery County. BTW I don’t live in Christiansburg either. I take offense to a good deed being smeared by someone who “shoots” from the hip with false statements.
Comment by Mike Watson — June 30, 2012 @ 10:45 pm
Try Patrick, Michele. You obviously have a reading problem, too. What part of “town recreation fields” didn’t you understand? The Bill Winfrey Soccer Complex just happen to be next to Kipps Elementary but it is still a Town of Blacksburg facility, not MCPS land. As to the utility expense to run the pump, it is still an expense in the school budget that is horribly tight and if the taxpayers’ money has to be spent for the football team, it can’t be spent on something else like salaries or books. As to the lights, the article says they are a long-term plan without a date — but it is still a valid question about paying the bill since that is an expense that will have to go in a budget somewhere down the road and taxpayers will have to pay for.
Comment by Pat N. Hall — July 1, 2012 @ 5:09 pm
Thanks for another opportunity for me to embarrass you Patrick Michele! I do appreciate your reference to having a reading problem. You constantly refer to miniscule costs that may or may not occur with this practice field at CHS. ALL costs have been absorbed by the community as the article states and I have confirmed. MCPS has ZERO dollars alloted to this project. Now lets discuss Bill Brown Stadium located on Prices Fork Rd. where BHS soccer is played. An article titled “High School Football, 2008: 10 to watch”…..written by Robert Anderson and published in the Roanoke Times on July 28, 2008 speaks with Jack Hencke the Athletic Director at BHS at that time about the opening game versus Giles in the “new” Bill Brown Stadium. In the middle of the article is the following quotation…..”Hencke said future plans call for the installation of artificial turf. He said a 1.2 MILLION dollar fund-raising program already has generated 910 THOUSAND dollars in donations and pledges for future improvements.” I have a BUNCH of questions for YOU on this one Patrick-Michele!!! You complain about a tight budget and potentially a very small well pump electric bill in Christiansburg, YET in Blacksburg SOMEBODY has been sitting on 910,000 dollars!! Makes pay to play, “shafting” of teachers with no pay raise, rising retirement and healthcae expenses and out of pocket expenses (YOUR gripes) insequential!! Wouldn’t it have been prudent for the powers that hold this 910, 000 for “artificial turf” for BHS sports to hand that money over to the MCPS according to your beliefs??? HMM…..Funny thing is I have also checked on the upkeep of one of these 1.2 MILLION dollar fields also. The replacement of the field and upkeep is astronomical. Maybe that is the reason NONE of the high schools in Montgomery County currently have one of these surfaces to date. Looks like one high school is going to break the MCPS budget on an “end-around” and try to plant one of these fancy fields down on Price’s Fork Road. I can’t wait to see you go into defensive posturing on this one!! Have a wonderful 4th of July or are you against that too?
Comment by Mike Watson — July 3, 2012 @ 11:43 pm