With a May 18, groundbreaking, Christian Academy of Louisville’s English Station campus began a sports renovation that will impact 7 playing and practice fields. Centurion Field will now become an AstroTurf field for football, field hockey and men’s and women’s lacrosse. Dirt from the current football field will also allow us to improve the soccer field and various practice fields around the campus.
Scheduled for a mid-July completion, the new Centurion Field will feature the latest state-of-the-art design for improved safety and performance, 5x more dense than any previous AstroTurf design. CAL will be the first high school or college complex east of the Mississippi to have this type of field.
Progress of CAL’s new multisport Centurion Field can be seen in:
- May 23 – The clearing of the initial turf covering.
- May 25 – The removal of over 400 truckloads of dirt, creating a field base 4 feet lower for new fill.
- May 26 – The installation of a concrete lip used to secure the new turf.
- June 2 – Cutting through rock.
- June 3 – The installation of drainage and water pipes.
- June 6 – Cutting through more rock (after all, this is Kentucky).
- June 9 – Final leveling to prepare for stabilizing the soil (the process by which the underlying dirt is hardened to prevent future settling).
- June 11 – The application of Lime for stabilizing, which is followed by a cement mix and gravel fines tilled into the soil.
- June 17 – The final application of tarp, drainage tape and over 200 truckloads of gravel.
- June 24 – The field prep is finished and the goal posts have been reset. The crew will begin installing the absorbent pad and the top turf before starting the process of cutting in the yard lines and the goal lines for lacrosse and field hockey. We are on schedule for our mid-July completion. Other schools from surrounding states are already calling to find out about our new field. We praise God for allowing us to provide this field for our students and visiting teams.
- June 29 – Three more steps! The final steps include:
- First, the laying of almost 4000 pad sections. They go down like a 120 yard jigsaw puzzle (counting the end zones).
- Second, the turf rolls are placed over the absorbent pads and fastened together. The blue turf will be for the end zones. The field alternates light and dark every 5 yards. (with the exception between the 45 yard lines where it is solid dark for our logo. This phase of laying the turf should be completed this week.
- Lastly, the third step will involve cutting in the hash marks, the yard numbers, the end zone letters and the lacrosse and field hockey goal lines.
- July 11 – In a drone image, the endzone lettering and hash marks were hand cut and inserted over the weekend. The center logo will be inserted over the next few days. On Thursday, the Zenofill sand will be laid and pressed into the field. The designer/engineer of this newest field concept will be here from California this week to supervise the finishing touches. We are grateful to the God’s provisions for this field. Practices will start next week!
- July 27 – We are so thankful to God for His provision and humbled by the support of our donors and partners to have a beautiful field that will play host to over 100 athletic teams. Enjoy this time-lapse of the complete process..