SPRINGDALE : Har-Ber getting practice surface
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
SPRINGDALE — Har-Ber High School football players spent their fall mornings driving across town in a rush for 6 a.m. practice at Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium.
Without a practice facility of its own, the team faced a choice — share with rival Springdale High or learn plays on a rough patch of grass that was nothing like the professional turf they played on at other Class 7 A schools.
By fall, the team will have a $ 484, 000 practice turf of its own — paid for without taxpayer money — thanks to the help of an anonymous Springdale family that underwrote a $ 110, 000 loan on behalf of the booster club to fill a fundraising gap.
“When you are bringing a school district forward on many fronts, you have got to have these kinds of partners working with you,” Superintendent Jim Rollins said.
The district contributed $ 334, 000 it collected through a contract with Coca-Cola, allowing the soft drink company to sell its drinks in machines and at school activities throughout the district. Money from the 10-year contract, which generates about $ 140, 000 a year, has been used to pay for school activity projects at Springdale High and Southwest Junior High, Rollins said.
“It is definitely Har-Ber’s turn to have access to those dollars,” he said.
The school’s football booster club began working a year ago to raise money for the remaining cost for the turf, club President Tim Pruitt said.
The group rallied corporate donors and held several large fundraisers, collecting $ 40, 000. In one event, players raised more than $ 30, 000 for the turf and new weightlifting equipment.
With $ 110, 000 still needed and summer on the horizon, the club feared the team would spend another season driving across town for practice, Pruitt said. An involved family volunteered to underwrite a loan for the remaining cost of the project, a debt that the booster club will repay through continued fundraisers. This unusual level of commitment is typical for the booster club, Pruitt said. Members are motivated by the increasingly high standards of athletic facilities in large school districts like the indoor practice facility at Springdale High and Bentonville’s Tiger Stadium. “There’s small colleges that do not have the same facilities that a lot of 7 A schools have,” he said. Practicing on inconsistent, pitted ground created difficult practices for players and, in the worst cases, ankle injuries, Pruitt said. The turf, which will also be used for soccer games, is the first phase of a multipart project. The district will eventually build a stadium around the field. The field should be completed by Aug. 1, assistant superintendent Ron Bradshaw said.
To contact this reporter: eblad@arkansasonline. com
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
