Northwestern High School Gets New Turf Football Field

MAPLE, Wis.– Underneath the Friday night lights, Northwestern High School Football is known for drawing in fans.

“It’s definitely a good community, the support around here is really nice and to watch fans come out here and cheer us on is a nice thing to have,” said Gage Nollet, member of the Northwestern football team.

But concern arose when the Tiger’s current playing surface started showing signs of it’s years of use.

So the school jumped into action and started raising money for a new field.

“The life expectancy of an athletic field is usually about 10 years for turf. So it’s six years past its life expectancy,” said Karl Morrin, District Administrator for the District of Maple.

Player safety played a large factor in the decision for a new field.

“Having the new turf will bring a lot of safety, having more compression,” said Caleb Wakefield, member of the Northwestern football team.

So, the aging turf was removed after 16 years of wear and tear.

Crews started installing the new turf, and members of the football team were able to visit the new field before it’s completed.

“I’m pretty excited to get new turf because all through youth football I’ve played on this field and it’s meant a lot to me,” said Wakefield.

“It’s definitely better than what we’ve had the past couple of years,” said Nollet.

Cenovus Energy provided the school with $50,000, which will be used to fund the new and improved turf.

“The number one priority at Cenovus is safety, so ensuring that we have a safe surface for our student-athletes and their opponents for participation is a good thing for the community,” said Timothy Thom, Cenovus Energy Technical Services Director.

“It really means a lot that there’s a lot of companies in the local area that are helping donate all of this money for us to get this turf,” said Wakefield.

And not only will the new turf come with fewer injury opportunities.

It will give Friday night games a modern look.

“It will have the colored end zones, it will say Northwestern Tigers, it will have the big tiger head in the middle,” said Morrin. “It’s going to look state of the art. And I think everybody in the community is really going to take a lot of pride in it when they see it.”

And as the Tiger athletes said, if anything can bring a community together, it’s a football game.

“The community comes together Friday Nights in the fall to support the football team. It’s really hard to find a parking spot because the upper, and lower lots are filled and there’s vehicles parked on both sides of the road,” said Thom. “It’s what brings the community together and everyone supports Northwestern High School Football,”

The replacement process has just began, and should be finished in a few weeks time.