(DALTON, Georgia) - Not only is AstroTurf® the leading innovator for sports turf systems, it is also best positioned to supply customers with guaranteed on-time delivery of AstroTurf® fields, even with its wide array of turf fiber colors, textures and shapes. This is especially important during the summer's busy installation period.
Through in-house extrusion, knitting, tufting, logo-cutting, urethane coating, and by working closely with well-established, dependable suppliers, AstroTurf® is fully capable of meeting deadlines without having to resort to component substitutions or incompatible fiber mixtures. According to AstroTurf®, fiber shortages, even in white and light green, are simply not part of its business model.
"We have the resources, skills, and experience to meet almost any supply challenge," said AstroTurf® President, Bryan Peeples. "In fact, we are so well-prepared that we can easily pick up the slack of others--to step in right now if competitors fall short-- and get projects done on time."
In terms of faster installation, one of AstroTurf®’s key advantages is its ability to prefabricate entire fields; that is, to inlay in the factory, most game lines, numerals, arrows, hash marks and end zone letters.
"This patented prefabrication process enables us to speed up installations significantly, sometimes by weeks, while improving finished quality," continued Peeples.
While other companies are dependent on components shipped from abroad, especially fiber, AstroTurf® is American-owned and American-managed, with most, if not all, components made in the USA.
"We haven't had to inform our sales reps that we can't provide certain fiber styles or colors that have been promised to their customers," said Peeples. "We plan better than that."
AstroTurf® makes most of its fibers and backings in its Georgia production facility and sometimes buys from an industry supplier within 100 miles. This allows AstroTurf® to easily provide things like multiple colors for lines, letters and logos; light and dark green for alternating turf panels (to simulate mown fields; and even tweeds (multiple colors in the same tufting needle).
But the last thing AstroTurf® wants to do is improperly mix fibers. This is a major turf sin, at least to Peeples. "Some companies think it's okay to make colored lines and other markings out of one kind of fiber, while praising the characteristics of and using a different fiber for the green turf,” he said. “We don't."
Fibers that wear at different rates can spell disaster. "Frankly," said Peeples, "if the green fiber is a different shape, and made with a different resin, it will resist wear and sunlight differently from the white, yellow, red or other fiber. Anyone who has had a turf field with 'disappearing white lines' knows exactly what I am talking about."
At AstroTurf®, quality and performance are more important than marketing hype. And so is proper planning and execution.
"We know that clients want a positive experience buying and building their turf field," concluded Peeples. "And getting what they actually paid for is certainly a key part of that experience."
About AstroTurf®
For many athletes and sport enthusiasts, the AstroTurf® brand has redefined the way the game is played. AstroTurf® offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport, and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies, leveraging a vertically integrated manufacturing system. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities select AstroTurf®-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority, and safety. To learn more, visit www.astroturfusa.com. You can also check out AstroTurf® on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/AstroTurf/124352067595110.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The University of Tennessee and AstroTurf Open Center for Athletic Field Safety
(KNOXVILLE, Tenn.) – From the little leagues to the big leagues, injury prevention and performance are key issues in today’s sports world. Turfgrass scientists at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and AstroTurf® have partnered on a research program to address these problems.
The University of Tennessee and AstroTurf® dedicated the Center for Athletic Field Safety (CAFS) this week. The center is a one-of-a-kind facility dedicated to researching the performance and safety of natural and synthetic turf surfaces used on athletic fields. It represents the single largest athletic field research effort ever undertaken. Ceremonies were held at the research site located at the UT Institute of Agriculture’s East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“Great universities and public/private partnerships provide ideal solutions that make a difference in people’s lives; in this case, the lives of athletes,” Dr. Joe DiPietro, President of the University of Tennessee told a capacity crowd as they overlooked 60 to-scale miniature athletic fields. “We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the Peeples family and AstroTurf®,” he said.
“This is a very important day for me and my family,” Bryan Peeples, President of AstroTurf®, said. “Involvement in the center gets to the core of what we are all about. Like UT, we are in the solutions business for the textile and synthetic turf industries. As soon as we can get these research findings out, AstroTurf® and others on the open market can use this information to make safer fields for athletes.”
University of Tennessee Head Football Coach Derek Dooley was on hand and echoed Peeples’ sentiments.
"I think it's a real tribute to what our university's all about," Dooley said. "It's finding solutions, taking your intellectual capacity, using the university to find solutions for America, and that's what we're doing."
“Our goal is to make fields safer at all levels of play. This center is a canvas for collaboration, affecting not only turfgrass study but areas of study such as biomechanics and human kinetics on a national level,” said Dr. John Sorochan, Co-Investigator and Associate Professor of Plant Science.
The two-acre Center for Athletic Field Safety aims to make a long-term difference. While determining the safety and performance of synthetic turf products compared to various natural turfgrass systems, UT turfgrass scientists will also monitor these relationships over time. Additionally, they will evaluate the
environmental impacts of each system. The research should lead to the development of new, more accurate methods for testing the safety and performance of all synthetic turf systems.
“Injuries are a huge concern in all athletics. The CDC has shown in studies that $49 billion is spent every year in medical and legal expenses due to injuries affecting children under 14,” said Dr. Jim Brosnan, Co-Investigator and Assistant Professor of Plant Science.
“Studies have shown that 25 percent of injuries that occur in athletics are potentially related to the conditions of the playing surface, while others have shown 50 percent of all sports injuries are preventable. We need to learn more about how athletes interact with playing surfaces.”
Natural surfaces are planted with Bermuda grass, Kentucky bluegrass and others. Both mechanical and human studies will be performed to create “real play” conditions. The research will be scientifically based for statistical analysis. In addition, the geographic location of the site will enable scientists to conduct research on a variety of surfaces from both cool- and warm-season climates. The unique outdoor research facility comprises 60 small-scale athletic research fields constructed from a variety of playing surfaces. UT turfgrass scientists will compare the safety and performance of synthetic playing surfaces to natural grass surfaces. Field qualities will range from those employed for professional–level sports to surfaces used by schools, public parks and recreation fields.
The UT Center for Athletic Field Safety will also further education for University of Tennessee students, enabling UT Plant Sciences faculty to add another level to the curriculum to train and educate future sports turf practitioners.
It was clear that this center will have a much anticipated impact. The event was attended by dignitaries such as Coach Dooley, Washington Nationals Vice President Bob Boone, and NFL Players Association Assistant Executive Director Clark Gaines, among others.
The importance of this research was underscored by concluding remarks from NFL player Eric Berry.
“As a football player, I trust the fields that I play on to respond to my movement, stops and changes of direction. As I’ve learned first-hand, an unsafe field can quickly result in loss of performance or injury. When I partnered with AstroTurf® in the summer of 2010, I learned about what makes a safe surface from the soil up. Whether natural turf or artificial, researching safer playing surfaces is something I believe in whole-heartedly. With the support of the University of Tennessee and AstroTurf®, I can’t wait to see how students and faculty are able to advance the safety of athletic surfaces. Congratulations on dedicating this one of a kind facility,” said Berry.
About The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture provides instruction, research and public service through the UT College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; the UT College of Veterinary Medicine; UT AgResearch, including its system of 10 research and education centers; and UT Extension with offices in all 95 Tennessee counties. The Tennessee Turfgrass team members have developed turfgrass management programs for sports field managers and have served as consultants to the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the PGA of America and professional soccer teams. They advise and consult internationally with sports field managers for cricket, soccer, football, golf, baseball and Olympic venues. For more information on UT’s turfgrass program, visit http://www.turf.tennessee.edu/ or http://www.tennesseeturfgrassweeds.org/
About AstroTurf®
For many athletes and sport enthusiasts, the iconic AstroTurf® brand has redefined the way the game is played. The company offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies, leveraging a truly vertically integrated manufacturing system. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities continue to select AstroTurf®-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority and safety. Recent innovations from AstroTurf® include GameDay Grass™ 3D with RootZone®, a polyethylene/nylon hybrid system which most closely replicates natural grass; and AstroFlect™ technology which significantly reduces turf surface temperatures. To learn more, visit www.astroturfusa.com
Go here and "like" the AstroTurf Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/AstroTurf/124352067595110
If you would like additional photographs, please email Connie Geddings at geddin00@utk.edu
Monday, July 11, 2011
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BASEBALL TEAM SELECTS ASTROTURF
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - “THE” Ohio State University has decided to play its baseball games on “THE” premiere surface in all of sports.
The Buckeyes will be playing on an all new AstroTurf® GameDay Grass™ 3D52 Extreme surface beginning in 2012.
Head Coach Greg Beals, in announcing the decision, said the two primary reasons were to be able to practice and play more often in more types of weather. Other factors influencing the decision were the playability and consistency of the artificial surface.
Beals said the Big Ten school has no practice field, so the game field at Bill Davis Stadium also served as the practice field.
“The new AstroTurf® field will allow us to get that much-needed practice time and be able to play in virtually any condition.”
Beals, who became the Buckeyes head coach last June, said he became an expert on artificial surfaces during the process. OSU facilities staff assisted in the process, but ultimately, Beals made the decision.
The coach and staff visited several fields made by different companies, but selected AstroTurf® after visiting the baseball field at Duke University and the infield practice surface at the Port Charlotte, Florida facility which serves as the Spring Training base for the Tampa Bay Rays.
“I noticed that when I talked to coaches who played on AstroTurf®, they talked about why they liked the brand. Coaches who had other types of fields liked those fields, but just talked about the field and not the company,” said Beals. “Rich Jordan and Matthew Boggs from AstroTurf® listened first and that was the key. They didn’t try to sell us a standard field. They built a field around our specific needs.”
The new surface will feature an all-new fiber combination called Extreme. The field will combine a monofilament Horseshoe fiber with a slit film product. The Horseshoe fiber has an Omega-shape, which is more resilient and bounces back, staying upright longer. It also reflects less light and heat. The slit film offers the ultimate in durability. The field features 52 ounces of fiber per square yard.
The field will also have a nylon RootZone™, a thatch layer which holds the sand and rubber infill in place for less splash and migration, making for a more consistent playing surface.
“The look and feel of grass, the encapsulation of the infill, and the speed and play provided by the fiber weight made this the best product for us,” said Beals.
The decision by the Buckeyes is part of a growing trend toward synthetic turf in baseball. OSU joins Duke, Wake Forest, Wichita State, and others with AstroTurf® fields. AstroTurf® is the Official Synthetic Turf of Major League Baseball and is used by the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Buckeyes were able to get the field, thanks in part to a generous donation from New York Yankees star Nick Swisher, a former Buckeye. While there, Swisher was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2000, won two Big Ten Championships, and was a two-time All Big Ten selection. He was the number one draft pick of the Oakland As. Swisher has been an All-Star and won a World Series in 2009 with the Yankees.
The new field will be called Nick Swisher Field.
“Nick is all about player development and guys getting on the field to make themselves better,” said Beals. “He is as excited as we are about the new AstroTurf® field.”
Swisher’s excitement, though, is surpassed by that of Beals. Beals, according to The Ohio State University athletic department, had a lifelong dream to coach at OSU, which bordered on passion.
He played four years at Kent State University and three years in the New York Mets farm system. He served as an assistant at Kent State for nine years and as head coach at Ball State for eight years, where he won 243 games, three Mid American Conference West Division titles, and one MAC tournament championship. Appointed to his current post in June 2010, he is described as a tireless recruiter and coach, focusing on player development.
“This field will help bring us the best players and will help us develop into the best team we can be,” said Beals. “We have big goals here and this is a major step in our reaching those goals.”
Other benefits of the field are environmental in nature. The field will save as much as 500,000-1,000,000 gallons of water each year and will eliminate maintenance costs and harmful effects of fertilizers, pesticides, and emissions.
Also, Universal Textile Technologies, which supplies the backing on AstroTurf® systems, has replaced much of the petroleum-based backing with backing utilizing polyols from soybeans, a rapidly renewable resource.
Construction on the new Nick Swisher Field will begin ¬¬¬in August.
Meanwhile, Beals is already preparing for the future by recruiting new players. Current players are preparing for next throughout the summer. Fourteen players from Ohio State are playing in collegiate wood bat leagues this summer.
“The level of commitment by Coach Beals and the folks at The Ohio State University is amazing,” said Bryan Peeples, President of AstroTurf®. “They have a commitment to being the best and we are committed to providing them with the best playing field available.”
About AstroTurf®
For many athletes and sport enthusiasts, the AstroTurf® brand has redefined the way the game is played. The company offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies, leveraging the industry’s first vertically integrated manufacturing system. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities continue to select AstroTurf®-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority and safety. Recent innovations from AstroTurf® include GameDay Grass™ 3D with RootZone®, a polyethylene/nylon hybrid system which most closely replicates natural grass; a non-chemical antimicrobial shield protecting against MRSA and other infectious bacteria; and AstroFlect™ Technology which significantly reduces turf surface temperatures. To learn more, visit www.astroturfusa.com.
The Buckeyes will be playing on an all new AstroTurf® GameDay Grass™ 3D52 Extreme surface beginning in 2012.
Head Coach Greg Beals, in announcing the decision, said the two primary reasons were to be able to practice and play more often in more types of weather. Other factors influencing the decision were the playability and consistency of the artificial surface.
Beals said the Big Ten school has no practice field, so the game field at Bill Davis Stadium also served as the practice field.
“The new AstroTurf® field will allow us to get that much-needed practice time and be able to play in virtually any condition.”
Beals, who became the Buckeyes head coach last June, said he became an expert on artificial surfaces during the process. OSU facilities staff assisted in the process, but ultimately, Beals made the decision.
The coach and staff visited several fields made by different companies, but selected AstroTurf® after visiting the baseball field at Duke University and the infield practice surface at the Port Charlotte, Florida facility which serves as the Spring Training base for the Tampa Bay Rays.
“I noticed that when I talked to coaches who played on AstroTurf®, they talked about why they liked the brand. Coaches who had other types of fields liked those fields, but just talked about the field and not the company,” said Beals. “Rich Jordan and Matthew Boggs from AstroTurf® listened first and that was the key. They didn’t try to sell us a standard field. They built a field around our specific needs.”
The new surface will feature an all-new fiber combination called Extreme. The field will combine a monofilament Horseshoe fiber with a slit film product. The Horseshoe fiber has an Omega-shape, which is more resilient and bounces back, staying upright longer. It also reflects less light and heat. The slit film offers the ultimate in durability. The field features 52 ounces of fiber per square yard.
The field will also have a nylon RootZone™, a thatch layer which holds the sand and rubber infill in place for less splash and migration, making for a more consistent playing surface.
“The look and feel of grass, the encapsulation of the infill, and the speed and play provided by the fiber weight made this the best product for us,” said Beals.
The decision by the Buckeyes is part of a growing trend toward synthetic turf in baseball. OSU joins Duke, Wake Forest, Wichita State, and others with AstroTurf® fields. AstroTurf® is the Official Synthetic Turf of Major League Baseball and is used by the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Buckeyes were able to get the field, thanks in part to a generous donation from New York Yankees star Nick Swisher, a former Buckeye. While there, Swisher was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2000, won two Big Ten Championships, and was a two-time All Big Ten selection. He was the number one draft pick of the Oakland As. Swisher has been an All-Star and won a World Series in 2009 with the Yankees.
The new field will be called Nick Swisher Field.
“Nick is all about player development and guys getting on the field to make themselves better,” said Beals. “He is as excited as we are about the new AstroTurf® field.”
Swisher’s excitement, though, is surpassed by that of Beals. Beals, according to The Ohio State University athletic department, had a lifelong dream to coach at OSU, which bordered on passion.
He played four years at Kent State University and three years in the New York Mets farm system. He served as an assistant at Kent State for nine years and as head coach at Ball State for eight years, where he won 243 games, three Mid American Conference West Division titles, and one MAC tournament championship. Appointed to his current post in June 2010, he is described as a tireless recruiter and coach, focusing on player development.
“This field will help bring us the best players and will help us develop into the best team we can be,” said Beals. “We have big goals here and this is a major step in our reaching those goals.”
Other benefits of the field are environmental in nature. The field will save as much as 500,000-1,000,000 gallons of water each year and will eliminate maintenance costs and harmful effects of fertilizers, pesticides, and emissions.
Also, Universal Textile Technologies, which supplies the backing on AstroTurf® systems, has replaced much of the petroleum-based backing with backing utilizing polyols from soybeans, a rapidly renewable resource.
Construction on the new Nick Swisher Field will begin ¬¬¬in August.
Meanwhile, Beals is already preparing for the future by recruiting new players. Current players are preparing for next throughout the summer. Fourteen players from Ohio State are playing in collegiate wood bat leagues this summer.
“The level of commitment by Coach Beals and the folks at The Ohio State University is amazing,” said Bryan Peeples, President of AstroTurf®. “They have a commitment to being the best and we are committed to providing them with the best playing field available.”
About AstroTurf®
For many athletes and sport enthusiasts, the AstroTurf® brand has redefined the way the game is played. The company offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies, leveraging the industry’s first vertically integrated manufacturing system. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities continue to select AstroTurf®-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority and safety. Recent innovations from AstroTurf® include GameDay Grass™ 3D with RootZone®, a polyethylene/nylon hybrid system which most closely replicates natural grass; a non-chemical antimicrobial shield protecting against MRSA and other infectious bacteria; and AstroFlect™ Technology which significantly reduces turf surface temperatures. To learn more, visit www.astroturfusa.com.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
ASTROTURF A BIG HIT LOCALLY
By Lindsey Young / Chattanooga Times Free Press
The AstroTurf® field at Ridgeland High School turns a year old in a few weeks, and though no party will be held on its behalf, head football coach Mark Mariakis would buy it a present and take it to dinner if he could.
Mariakis’ wife, Debbie, who coaches only from the stands, would chip in as well.
For the first time in recent memory, the Mariakis' took off for vacation last week without having to make arrangements for someone to take over field maintenance duties. Make that fields. With the nearly maintenance-free (AstroTurf® GameDay Grass™ 3D) field in place, Mark Mariakis no longer has to spend several hours each week taking care of the main field AND practice field.
That's just one of the many reasons the veteran coach has no regrets in pushing for the installation of the synthetic field, the top of the line product from Dalton-based AstroTurf® that has become a selling point for the company. When a college, or country, inquires about purchasing a field, a trip to Rossville often follows.
“They said they would make it a showcase field and they did,” Mariakis said. “We had folks in from Boston College recently and within the past two months we've had people fly in from Europe, Australia and Sweden. I knew the field would be a major improvement, but I it's been better than we could ever expect.”
Walker County neighbor Gordon Lee will have an AstroTurf®-installed field ready for the 2011 season, joining Ridgeland, Calhoun, Baylor and McCallie as Chattanooga-area high schools with synthetic fields. To a person, those who have the fields find it difficult to find anything negative to say about them.
“When people hear you're going to spend half-a-million dollars on a field, especially in this economy, it draws some concern,” Calhoun coach and athletic director Hal Lamb said. “But it has been more than worth it with us. Our field had terrible drainage problems and it was often unusable after it rained. We don't have to worry about that any longer and we don't have to have a practice field.”
Two other factors play into the fields' feasibility: schools actually save thousands of dollars each season on field maintenance and the fields can be used much more often than grass fields.
“For what it does for this school and community, it's irreplaceable,” said Mariakis, whose field, like Calhoun's, was a drainage nightmare. “Not only does it give us a great surface to play on, we also have a lined practice field that makes our practices so much cleaner and sharper.
“Also, it's getting used. We can play junior varsity and middle school games on it. The band practices on it and our soccer teams finally had some home games and nearly every Saturday our recreational program uses it. Those are priceless moments for kids to get to play on that field and you can see it in their eyes.”
Mariakis says the school system was spending several thousands of dollars each year to water, fertilize, mow, edge and line. “All that for a field used at most 10 times a year,” he said.
Baylor had its turf installed before the 2009 season and head coach Phil Massey, like Mariakis and Lamb, did so out of necessity. Massey also acknowledges that there is no gauging how much the peace of mind knowing the field will always be playable is worth.
“With playing lacrosse and middle school football there, it had gotten too tough trying to maintain the grass,” he said. “It's been a great investment for us and the kids seem to like it. It's pretty soft. You can still get a little bit of a carpet burn, but its nothing like the old [artificial] surfaces from the 1980s and early 1990s. Its a good cushion for the legs, you don't get the pounding and injuries. We do all our agility work on the field.”
AstroTurf®'s Todd Britton, who is also a veteran football official in northwest Georgia, estimates a typical grass field costs anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000 annually to maintain, making the decision to install the synthetic fields easier for even cash-strapped communities.
“When you consider a field takes between a half-million and a million gallons of water each year to go along with fertilizer and pesticides and gas for mowing, it all adds up,” said Britton, who recently returned from Tampa, where AstroTurf® installed the new Rays' field. “In the long run, even when you have to replace the field one time [in approximately 10 years at an estimated one-fifth of the original cost], they pay for themselves.”
There are even fields that make money right away. Rome's Barron Stadium is the annual host of the NAIA Football Championship, but because of its poor playing surface the NAIA was seeking alternative sites for the game, something that would have cost the Rome area a good deal of money.
An AstroTurf® field was installed and the NAIA and Rome officials recently signed an extension to keep the game at Barron through 2015.
Football fields are still the most popular form of synthetic fields due to the heavier wear and tear of football and soccer, but Britton says baseball fields are quickly gaining, due in large part to the larger number of times each year a baseball field is used. McCallie had an AstroTurf® Extreme surface installed in its baseball infield last year.
“Baseball is huge right now,” Britton said. “We've done a number of college fields, including Duke, Wake Forest and Kansas, and we're doing Ohio State soon. We're the official turf of Major League Baseball. I expect more high schools to get [synthetic] baseball fields in the coming years.”
More will definitely go the synthetic route in football, likely beginning with Ringgold as it rebuilds its stadium after it was heavily damaged by April's tornado. And, as usual, Mark Mariakis will continue to sing his field's praises, especially when allowed to spend a carefree week away on vacation.
“Man, the hours you don't have to spend working on the field are priceless,” he beamed. “At this time of the year we would be cutting four times a week, applying fertilizer and always, always edging it. I don't miss it.”
The coach did, however, come up with a negative to having his one-year-old field.
“There is something I've thought about,” he smiled. “The younger kids coming up in our system probably won't understand how good they've got it.”
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