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GoFundMe set up for damaged St. Edward field

After an outpouring of support, St. Edward High School in Elgin has set up a GoFundMe page to help deal with the aftermath of a landscaping accident that killed most of the grass on its football field.

The Green Wave has already played one game on dead grass at Greg True Field, Sept. 4 against Chicago Clark.

Coaches and administrators will decide late Thursday afternoon if they can play on it again this Friday, when the Wave is scheduled to host IC Catholic Prep.

Due to a mistake by the company contracted to maintain the field - it used a chemical mix on much of the playing surface that included grass killer instead of fertilizer, according to St. Edward athletic director P.J. White - about two thirds of the grass on the field died and turned brown in the week after St. Edward's Aug. 28 season opener.

However, because the root system remained intact, the field was deemed safe for play when the Green Wave hosted Chicago Clark.

"It looks bad more than anything else," White said. "My concern is not the look of the field but the safety of it. We've played on much worse fields."

The company responsible has since aerated the field and overseeded it in an attempt to bring it back to life. Though the team has stayed off the field since its Sept. 4 game to give it time to revive, it remains brown where the mix was sprayed.

White said a decision as to the field's viability for Friday's game against IC Catholic Prep will be made after the football team practices on it late Thursday afternoon.

If the field is ruled unplayable, the contingency plan is to move Friday's game to IC's synthetic turf field in Elmhurst. Meanwhile, other schools have stepped in with offers to rent their facilities if necessary, including Geneva and West Chicago, White said.

St. Edward football coach Mike Rolando said he doesn't think the contingency plan will be enacted because the footing, in his opinion, should be acceptable, though rain is expected throughout the day on Friday. He said he fully expects the game to remain in Elgin as scheduled.

"When you pull that brown stuff it's still attached to the root," Rolando said. "We've played on worse fields than this. Honestly, we slipped much more in our first game on the green grass because it was dewey at 7 o'clock at night and we were all falling down. On the night we played Chicago (Clark), I honestly don't remember a single kid slipping at all.

"Every field gets messed up when it rains anyway and it's supposed to rain on Friday. It's football; fields get messed up. So we've got dead grass a little earlier than everyone else has dead grass. It is what it is.

Rolando said it would likely take time for the grass to return to normal.

"My guess is, we're not going to see any huge results until late this year or in the spring, when (new grass) has a chance to actually take hold and come up," he said. "The company admitted to making a mistake and said they'd continue to come out and help get this thing back to what it was before."

Depending on the amount, the GoFundMe donations will go toward seeding, sod or even a new turf field. Rolando "guesstimated" the latter might cost $100,000.

The Green Wave's boys soccer team has been playing at the Elgin Sports Complex.

Soccer games were moved not because of safety concerns, but because the conditions of the field affect the speed of the ball, White said. "The ball rolls around on the grass, and on dead grass it's really fast and on live grass it slows down," he said.

In the first five hours on Wednesday, 32 people had donated $1,805 through the gofundme page.

Before St. Edward's game against Chicago Clark two weeks ago, the company that handles the landscaping at Greg True Field in Elgin put weed killer down instead of fertilizer. The Green Wave played on the field that night despite the conditions and a decision will be made Thursday if they can play Friday's game against IC Catholic in Elgin or if it will have to be moved to Elmhurst. Courtesy of St. Edward high school
Before St. Edward's game against Chicago Clark two weeks ago, the company that handles the landscaping at Greg True Field in Elgin put weed killer down instead of fertilizer. The Green Wave played on the field that night despite the conditions and a decision will be made Thursday if they can play Friday's game against IC Catholic in Elgin or if it will have to be moved to Elmhurst. The school also has a gofundme page: http://www.gofundme.com/vz4acs6s Courtesy of St. Edward high school
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