Rain, poor construction and players' cleats have combined to destroy the football field at Stokes Stadium.

"I don't want to have to look at Kirksville High School and say 'Man, I wish I had their field,'" head football coach John Ware said.

The football team and the University have had trouble with the playing field before, but at the beginning of the season, the problem of a weak field was thought to have been solved.

The team has played on a poor surface for several years. The grass in the center of the field has not held up well for some time, Physical Plant Director Karl Schneider said.

Last spring, the grounds crew decided to re-sod the field with the intention of improving the problem and the tradition of Truman's field.

The field held up through the summer and the fall, but in mid-October it began to fall apart.

"We're disappointed about the situation," Schneider said. "It's frustrating."

The condition of the field has frustrated players and coaches who said that although advances have been made, there is no excuse for the field's appearance.

"It's a little embarrassing when other teams come in," senior wide receiver Alfonso Pugh said.

The grounds crew members have made efforts to improve the playing field, but while they focus their efforts on the main field, the practice field continues to suffer from a poor drainage system, Schneider said.

The practice field and the playing field have been destroyed by weeks of practices and games, Ware said, and it appears that the conditions really could not get much worse.

"Bottom line, this is the worst college football field I've ever played on," Ware said.

Grounds crew members have been trying to deal with the situation, but Schneider said all they can do at this point is let the team play its last game and then wait for spring.

Schneider said the plan for next year is to tear the sod up, do some additional soil preparation and then lay new sod. He said the crew hopes to check the sod as time goes along and give it quite a bit more time to root than it did last year.

Funds for re-sodding the playing field will come from the Physical Plant's budget, but funding for the practice field changes will have to come from other University sources, Schneider said.

The crew wants to alter the construction of the practice field completely to improve the drainage system, but the time to make such a change is not there, Schneider said.

"We know what we'd like to do with the practice field, but there is just not enough time," he said.

Last week, Truman brought in a turf consultant to analyze the condition of the field. Schneider said the consultant thought the crew had done everything he would have done, and the resulting condition of the field was a mystery.

For the players, the field has not aided practices as the weeks progressed, senior quarterback Dusty Burk said.

"When we're at practice, it's tough to find a good spot of grass to play on," Burk said.

The football team has played on a field that has disintegrated by the end of the season for the last few years, and it has waited for the grounds crew to improve the nature of the conditions, Ware said.

"I would say the crew is doing all they think they can do," Ware said. "I just don't think it's been handled the best way it could have been."

Ware said that despite the crew's best effort, the condition of the field is not comparable to that of other schools in the conference.

Players on the team have found little comfort in the field they are asked to play and win on, Pugh said.

"A lot of the guys on the team say their high school field was better than this field," Pugh said.

Article Tools