Turf battle is over for Meadowdale

It was just a dream, really. A wistful wish.

Meadowdale High School's football field was a mess last fall. Forces of nature over the years had given the field a "high crown," causing rainwater runoff to erode the track that encircled it. When the track was upgraded last summer with an all-weather surface replacing its old cinders, a subcontractor made a major mistake.

He was expected to excavate a 6-foot strip along each side of the field to install drainage for the track. Instead, the subcontractor dug up a 20-foot swath of football turf along each side.

"It was a crummy situation — it [the field] was pretty much out of commission for the entire season," said Terri McMahan, athletic director for the Edmonds School District. "A monumental effort was made to repair the field. But it has such a huge crown, it was very hard to match up the pieces."

While the school feared for the safety of its students, the football team — as well as high-school gym classes — continued using the field.

"We had to. We had no place else to go," said Mark Stewart, Meadowdale's head football coach. "You kind of practiced on spots — you literally walked around and found a place that didn't have a ditch in it."

Last September found McMahan standing on the field with Meadowdale's head football coach, Mark Stewart, staring at the mismatched patches of sod, envisioning a more perfect world with a new playing field.

Then, several days later, Donny Jones came to town to talk with McMahan about potential projects his company, FieldTurf, might take on for the school district. They were visiting the nearby Meadowdale Playfields, to discuss costs for an upgrade, when McMahan remembered the football field.

"I said, 'Hey, Donny, want to come across the street and see our little fiasco?' "

FieldTurf, a Montreal-based company that installed the artificial grass at Husky Stadium and the Seahawks' Qwest Field, this week is adding football and soccer lines to Meadowdale's new, state-of-the-art turf. The artificial grass was rolled out and sewn into place last Wednesday.

The $900,000 project was assembled — and launched — in near-record time by McMahan, who tapped a range of community and civic resources to rebuild the field for community football and soccer programs. Funding sources include:

• $495,000 from a school levy approved by voters in 2004. The $44 million capital levy set aside $1 million for community partnership projects.

• $255,000 in combined price discounts from FieldTurf and Premier Field Development, a Snohomish company that prepared the field for its new turf. Premier's past projects include Safeco Field, where they laid down the base beneath the natural grass.

• $100,000 from Edmonds Community College, which plans to move its men's and women's soccer programs to Meadowdale.

• $50,000 from the Northwest Nationals, a South Snohomish County soccer club that will share the field.

Now McMahan is trying to raise an additional $200,000 to install lights for night games. So far, she has secured $100,000 from Snohomish County in developer mitigation fees, a $10,000 matching grant from the Hubbard Family Foundation, $6,500 from the Tulalip Tribes, $6,000 from the South Snohomish County Youth Soccer Association, and $1,000 from the Sno-King Youth Club.

She also has requested $50,000 from the Lynnwood City Council. Meadowdale coaches and booster clubs are heading up fundraising efforts, too, she said.

Jones, FieldTurf's regional manager, gives full credit to McMahan.

"She's a great lady. I've been in this business for 21 years, and there is no athletic director that works harder than she does, for sure," he said. "She is so dedicated to those students and the student athletes — she goes so far above and beyond the call of duty."

FieldTurf, which has installed fields at dozens of professional stadiums and universities across the country, is taking a loss on the project, he said.

McMahan, in turn, credits Jones and all the community groups that stepped up to help.

"It's been a really neat deal, a very gratifying project," she said. "We've got the best of the best."

McMahon received an official go-ahead in November from the district advisory committee allocating the levy's partnership funds. Premier Field Development broke ground in January, and FieldTurf is expected to finish its work by month's end.

"It's so neat to see a broken-down old field converted," she said. "I always say I want to do projects that outlive me. This is quite amazing."

Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com