Jackson Christian School announces turf football field project

Luis Torres
Jackson Sun
Jackson Christian School's football field will go from natural grass to turf by August.

 A Jackson high school will be getting the city's first turf football field.

Jackson Christian School announced Thursday that it will be renovating its football field and will be converting it to a turf field. The field is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 4, in time for the Eagles' alumni game against Fayette Academy.

The estimated cost of the project is $640,000, per Chris Ramey, the director of advancement for Jackson Christian. It will take about eight weeks to complete. 

"It's a big-time step for the athletic department here at Jackson Christian," athletic director Jason Shelton said. "It's going to be able to serve so many different areas, different sports and also different things in the community. It'll be an attraction for folks to the campus for sure."

The project is the fourth and final one of Jackson Christian's current capital campaign called the LEAD Campaign. To date, more than $2.8 million has been contributed to the campaign. The goal is $3.3 million.

Huntingdon and Dyersburg are two other programs in rural West Tennessee that have turf football fields. Westview plays at UT Martin at Hardy M. Graham Stadium, which is a turf field. 

Shelton, who started as the athletic director at Jackson Christian last Monday, learned about the project when he was first hired.

"It's a step to let people know that Jackson Christian is serious about our athletic programs and developing those and developing those well-rounded student that God wants them to be," Shelton said.

Concept photo of Jackson Christian School's turf field.

Football coach Darby Palmer said the project has been in the works for a couple of years. It took some time for the vision to come to fruition. 

"Just very excited for our school and our whole community," Palmer said. "This field will go to strengthening our football program, but it's going to strengthen our whole school and community because of the different events we can have on our field."

Palmer said events include both sports and non-sports activities – band competitions, field day for the elementary school, seven-on-seven tournaments for football and soccer events, too.   

What Palmer wants to see is the kids' reaction to when the team is first able to use the field. 

"That's really what I'm looking forward to," Palmer said. "Our kids being able to go out on that field and play on it for the first time and getting a lot of older guys back that laid the foundation."

Reach Luis Torres at ltorres1@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9638 and follow him on Twitter @LFTorresIII.