For decades, The Preuss School UC San Diego has had an ongoing issue with the grass field due to it being very dry and having many dead parts, despite multiple attempts of trying to regrow it. Due to all this, it would be better for Preuss to make a change and replace the current grass field with a turf one. Making the switch from natural grass to turf would allow a reliable surface for sports, bring long-term cost saving, and reduce risk injuries.
Preuss is mainly a low-income school with limited funds, which brings many problems and issues for big projects such as making the switch from natural grass to turf. This causes many to argue that installing a turf field is very unnecessary and unfair because the money that would be used for the turf field that instead could be given to put into important needs such as academics, student support, and classroom resources.
Despite the upfront prices, it creates greater savings throughout time. The university, who maintains the field, has already spent large amounts of money trying to regrow the field by planting, watering, and making many other repairs. From these past experiences, we have seen that investing on natural grass would most likely only bring expenses with much less results.
Furthermore, turf would create a consistent and reliable surface for physical education and for many sports such as soccer, lacrosse, and flag football. At this moment the grass field becomes very muddy when it rains. This also causes many divots and holes in the grass. Under these conditions, many times practices get canceled. This also affects home games because they either get moved to the opposing teams’ field, or canceled, which takes the opportunity of students’ experiencing their own team playing at their own school. This year the boys soccer team can not have home games due to the field condition. Making the change to turf would allow students to use the field in almost any weather condition or time of year.
Lastly, turf would still be the best option because it would reduce the amount of injuries students experience as well. At this moment the field is covered with bumps and holes. This could cause many students to fall, trip, and likely twist their ankles. Having a surface that is not even is also very dangerous for sports that are fast paced such as soccer and flag football. The difference between a grass field and turf field is that turf provides a design that will keep students and athletes safer due to its ability to absorb shock, which plays a major role in reducing injuries . This would also cause many improvements in sport-teams because athletes could fully focus on playing their best and hardest instead of worrying about getting injured.
Installing turf would be a smart investment for the future of the school because the students deserve a field that supports them, not one that holds them back.
