As turf fields have become more common in Montgomery County, controversy has arisen over the turf field present at Richard Montgomery High School (RM). RM recently received a flood of concerns from student athletes about the field causing injuries and lacerations during both practices and games.
This is not the first time RM has had issues with its field. A contractor known as Field Turf constructed the RM field with a plastic fiber called Duraspine back in 2011. Duraspine, however, has been proven to wither away under ultraviolet light, causing the fibers to break off. The field’s failed 2016 firmness test is a testament to how the breakdown of Duraspine can make a field unsafe.
The school board intervened by awarding a $562,721 contract to Sprinturf LLC for the replacement of the turf this past June, and shortly after the field reopened in August 2018. After an inspection, the crew put in a new field and redid the field level of infill and base mixture to allow greater movement of the turf’s fibers and ensure the safety of athletes.
Churchill senior David Kimel has played soccer on RM’s field this year and in previous years, and believes that this expensive maintenance has not made the field safer for athletes.
“RM is a hard floor with a thin layer of carpet over it and it hurts so badly to play there,” Kimel said. “It’s terrible for everyone’s knees and feet, not to mention when you hit the floor the turf burn is insanely painful.”
This, however, is not a representation of all turf fields in Montgomery County, as there have not been similar injuries reported by the eight other MCPS schools with turf fields, including Walter Johnson (WJ). WJ Athletic Director Tom Rogers believes that turf fields are the best option and has not received any complaints from students athletes about injuries from the field.
“If I was playing a sport where I was going to get knocked on the ground I’d much rather fall on [WJ’s] field than on the grass field right next to it, because our turf field is much more forgiving than the grass,” Rogers said.
Additionally, WJ senior Chris Manguelle, who is a captain on the school’s football team, agrees that turf fields are better than grass, and that he has not experienced severe injuries from it.
“I had a great experience playing on turf because it is better than grass due to the fact that when it rains turf just gets a little slippery but is still playable in,” Manguelle said. He also notes that while someone can get turf burn from the fields, it is minor and that he has not experienced or seen any major turf-related injuries while he has played.
Since fields at other schools do not seem to create the same severe injuries, RM’s field will be investigated specifically. In his memo sent to the school board, Superintendent Jack Smith said that the school district will monitor the changes made at the field “and determine next steps that may be appropriate.”
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Courtney Cohn of Walter Johnson High School.