The Columbus East football team was hoping to be conditioning on its new turf this week, but now, the Olympians may not be able to get on it until the first day of practice.
Monday was the target date for the completion of the project. That date has been backed up to July 29 — the day before practice begins.
“They’re incredibly far behind,” East athletics director Pete Huse said. “I can’t even guess how many more days they have before it’s ready.”
Sprint Turf put in a new field at Columbus North last month, a project that took about four weeks. But the company didn’t get started working on the East field until Saturday morning.
Randy Surface, project manager for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., said Sprint Turf was waiting on the shock pad that is being installed underneath the turf.
“That apparently slowed them down,” Surface said. “What slows them down a little bit is cutting all the logos and the lettering, all the numbers on the field.”
In the meantime, the football team is doing its conditioning in the grass area south of school that is sometimes used by the boys soccer squad. The football team used that area for part of last summer when the new track was being installed.
Next week, East will go to Mill Race Park to condition.
“We just make it work,” East football coach Bob Gaddis said. We’re hopeful that they have (the new turf) for the first day of practice.”
Surface is confident that will happen.
“It appears right now they are going to be able to do that,” Surface said. “That’s the goal right now. They put in a pretty good weekend this weekend.”
Teams net preseason top-10s
Columbus East is ranked No. 3 in Class 5A, and Columbus North is No. 7 in Class 6A in the 2018 Indiana Football Digest preseason rankings. New Palestine (5A) and Warren Central (6A) are in the top spots.
North senior quarterback Trenton Kelley is one of the digest’s Prime Time 25 which are pictured on the cover.
East senior linebacker Nash Murphy and senior defensive back Jonah Wichman made the digest’s 5A preseason All-State team. North senior offensive lineman Konner Stahl in 6A and Brown County junior quarterback Noah Carter in 3A are listed as honorable mention preseason All-State.
Trio set for All-Star series
Three recent graduates from Bartholomew County schools are set to play in this weekend’s North-South All-Star baseball series.
Columbus East’s Drew Hasson, Columbus North’s Tyler Finke and Hauser’s Sam Meek will play for the South Saturday and Sunday at Four Winds Field in South Bend. The North and South will play a doubleheader beginning at noon Saturday and a single wooden bat game at noon Sunday.
