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State Tournament Field Conditions


PJM
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There are several fields in Middle Tennessee that have the same problem.  It is called winter kill and as stated in a previous post it looks much worse that it is.  If it has a good subsurface it i not a bad pitch to play on, same as playing on brown Bermuda in early April. If the ares are large it will take some significant work to get it back for the girls season.

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We'll (Signal) play there tomorrow and I'll give an update.  If the Bermuda is just dead, it should be OK, and besides…both teams face the same conditions.  Thinking tomorrow night's game with Murf. Central and Signal should be a good match-up.  15-0-2 vs 14-0-2 will dash one of those teams' dreams of an undefeated season.  Middle of IB and AP exams here means (and a football scrimmage vs. Ooltewah) we won't bring many other than parents to watch.  But hopefully we'll come ready to play!

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We'll (Signal) play there tomorrow and I'll give an update.  If the Bermuda is just dead, it should be OK, and besides…both teams face the same conditions.  Thinking tomorrow night's game with Murf. Central and Signal should be a good match-up.  15-0-2 vs 14-0-2 will dash one of those teams' dreams of an undefeated season.  Middle of IB and AP exams here means (and a football scrimmage vs. Ooltewah) we won't bring many other than parents to watch.  But hopefully we'll come ready to play!

Good luck.  I've spent a lot of time on Signal Mtn.  I had several friends that lived up there and I  worked at the country club for nearly 3 years as a high school/college job......back when signal kids went to Red Bank High

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I was at the field last night. There is no real improvement since Riverdale and Blackman (You have seen the pics from this game). However, the play of the game was not diminished between Central and CCS. The championship field has layer of dormant Bermuda, and the game was great to watch. I am hoping to make the Central vs. Signal game tomorrow.

 

We have received a lot of rain today. Some Central people on twitter have been wondering if the game might be moved because the rainfall. I've been busy over the past several hours and have not seen at this point if a change might be made.

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Page HS's field is gorgeous right now.  We played a regular season match there about a month ago.  Yes, the winter was worse than usual on bermuda, but if a field was seeded with rye and properly taken care of (watered and not overused) it would be fantastic right now.  Our baseball and softball fields are so green they look like bermuda does in August and September.

 

All this to say, if the fields are bad, the matches should be moved.  In the fall for the girls state championship, they were average.  What was an embarrassing disgrace is that the goal mouths on each field were 6 yards x 3 yards of kitty litter.  There is no excuse for that, period.  You use your brain and shorten the field at each end by 3 yards and it's 114 x 75 instead of 120.  Apparently nobody making decisions last November was able to think this up.

 

Discouraged that the fields are in crap condition, but encouraged that they are considering moving the matches...

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Page HS's field is gorgeous right now.  We played a regular season match there about a month ago.  Yes, the winter was worse than usual on bermuda, but if a field was seeded with rye and properly taken care of (watered and not overused) it would be fantastic right now.  Our baseball and softball fields are so green they look like bermuda does in August and September.

 

All this to say, if the fields are bad, the matches should be moved.  In the fall for the girls state championship, they were average.  What was an embarrassing disgrace is that the goal mouths on each field were 6 yards x 3 yards of kitty litter.  There is no excuse for that, period.  You use your brain and shorten the field at each end by 3 yards and it's 114 x 75 instead of 120.  Apparently nobody making decisions last November was able to think this up.

 

Discouraged that the fields are in crap condition, but encouraged that they are considering moving the matches...

Yeah. Nice to highlight a field that only hosts one team as opposed to a complex that hosts recreational games & practices, select games & practices, tournaments and high school games. And overseeding with rye creates its own set of problems in later years.

 

Nobody here is arguing that the fields in Murfreesboro are what one would hope or expect. It was a cascading litany of issues that culminated in the excessive winter kill this year. And it looks like the resulting "crisis" has caused a top-down reevaluation of the entire complex. Siegel Park is conservatively responsible for $3-4 million dollars of annual economic impact to the city. I imagine the city will dedicate significant resources in correcting the controlable issues that led to the field conditions.

 

As to those calling for the games to be moved, I guess I would ask where you would suggest? Nearly every field within 20-25 miles of Murfreesboro is in the same shape. Do you really want to play some games at Webb, others at Smyrna, some at Page and some who knows where else just to have green grass?

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Yeah. Nice to highlight a field that only hosts one team as opposed to a complex that hosts recreational games & practices, select games & practices, tournaments and high school games. And overseeding with rye creates its own set of problems in later years.

 

Nobody here is arguing that the fields in Murfreesboro are what one would hope or expect. It was a cascading litany of issues that culminated in the excessive winter kill this year. And it looks like the resulting "crisis" has caused a top-down reevaluation of the entire complex. Siegel Park is conservatively responsible for $3-4 million dollars of annual economic impact to the city. I imagine the city will dedicate significant resources in correcting the controlable issues that led to the field conditions.

 

As to those calling for the games to be moved, I guess I would ask where you would suggest? Nearly every field within 20-25 miles of Murfreesboro is in the same shape. Do you really want to play some games at Webb, others at Smyrna, some at Page and some who knows where else just to have green grass?

 

Your point on a facility which is used multiple times on a daily basis versus a single use school field is correct.  One is obviously going to be much harder to keep in proper condition than the other.  As I've not seen the Siegel Complex fields other than the pictures earlier in the discussion, I cannot make a call as to whether the match site should be changed, I was just glad to hear that was being considered it the fields were a problem.  And yes, rye seeding every year can cause problems if not properly taken care of.

 

As for having matches at multiple sites, I would have no problem with that.  Up until this past fall, that is how the girls tournament had been run in Chattanooga for years.  A/AA at CCS, AAA at GPS and D2 at Baylor, with all the finals at GPS.  Some may disagree with this, but having the tournament at a multi field facility with several matches playing at the same time makes the whole thing feel like just another travel team tournament with 20-30 teams playing rather than one field and one match at a time.

 

If notably better field conditions exist within 20-30 minutes driving distance to Siegel, I would support their moving the matches.  You would need 2 or 4 locations on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday, and 1 on Friday.

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