Parkway High Schools Prepping for Football Season

Football season may be months away, but Parkway schools aren’t inactive during the off-season. Between field improvements and equipment repairs, the district is working to keep everything in tip-top shape.

Synthetic turf installation is under way at and h high schools. Crews had to dig down about 3 feet in order to install the drainage system and base for the turf, Mike Gohn, Parkway’s director of activities and athletics, said. That work has been done at both schools.

Rain will drain directly to pipes under the field, which will run to a retention area, Gohn said. Crews will also lay down a level of heavy gravel and then smaller gravel, plus a liner to protect the turf.

Gohn said that construction would begin at and high schools at the end of May, as long as all goes according to plan at North and South high. Recent rain has thrown a bit of a kink in plans, he said. Since the fields have been dug out, rain can turn the area into mud for several days at a time, delaying work. Gohn said there haven’t been too many long delays, though, and this problem will be resolved once the layers of gravel are laid.

Right now, Central High is hosting North High’s athletic events, such as track practices and girls soccer. West High is playing host to South High. Gohn said that solution is going pretty smoothly.

“We’re fortunate to have great facilities at each of our high schools, so the sister schools are picking up the slack,” he said.

The Parkway Board of Education at its Dec. 8 meeting. Costs were estimated at $2.86 million, which is funded by the bond issue voters approved in 2008.

The board also recently approved two bids to repair and replace football equipment. At its March 2 meeting, the board OK’d $38,809 for the purchase of various football equipment from five different companies.

At the April 13 meeting, the board approved a bid for the reconditioning of helmets and shoulder pads. Riddell All American will do the work for about $16,600.

Gohn said that number isn’t an estimate. Riddell comes in to the schools and evaluates the equipment before submitting a bid. That’s why the district has used the company for more than a decade.

It’s a cheaper option than simply buying new helmets or shoulder pads. Gohn said he thinks reconditioning a helmet costs about $25, while purchasing a new one would be about $250. The district reconditions some of the equipment every year.

“Over time, the padding may lose its ability to compress and then come back,” Gohn said of the shoulder pads and helmets. “They take out the padding on the inside, replace screws in the facemask, that sort of thing.”

The company also keeps a record of when the equipment is purchased and when it is reconditioned. That way if a player is ever hurt, the district can pull the equipment's history and know everything about it.

“I like the fact that the liability issue is taken care of by them, as long as we do our job and fit the equipment probably and teach the kids how to tackle and block,” Gohn said.

The cost per school breaks down roughly as follows: