Apr 8 2010
Cardinal Newman High School, a respected Catholic college preparatory school in Santa Rosa, has been blessed with a new asset for its students and athletic program: ProTrophy Turf™, an advanced synthetic turf system developed by TigerTurf.
The baseball field was in dire need of new turf because it is used year-round, seeing action approximately 200+ days out of every calendar year. The outfield was designed to accommodate the school’s soccer and lacrosse programs.
After conducting extensive research and considering several artificial turf options, the school chose TigerTurf’s ProTrophy Turf system which features a one-of-a kind “S” & “C” monofilament fiber combination. Developed by worldwide artificial turf manufacturer TigerTurf, the exclusive ProTrophy Turf system features superior yarn engineering with “Springback” and “Capsulate” profiles for heightened athletic field performance, better field longevity, and faster fiber recovery. For high school sports fields with extremely heavy use, it’s the perfect choice.
Mike Truesdell, president of Cardinal Newman High School, explained that the other turf systems that he and his team evaluated were 2, 2-1/4 or 2-1/2 inches tall – which would not work for their purposes.
“The ProTrophy Turf product could be made a shorter length with rows of fibers closer together, which is more appropriate for baseball,” said Truesdell. “This was important to our baseball kids. It is closer to the beautiful natural grass fields you see at baseball diamonds in Phoenix during spring training.”
The 1.75-inch pile height, tight 3/8-inch tuft gauge, sand/rubber infill, and mixture of the two unique monofilament fibers make for a more natural product.
“We listened to what our client needed, how they wanted the field to perform for the various sport activities and designed it according to their specifications,” noted Doug Coulter, founder and chief executive officer of California Ultimate Turf “We have an excellent relationship with TigerTurf and TenCate (TigerTurf affiliate). They manufacture great products, and our clients recognize and appreciate this.”
Since Cardinal Newman also has a natural turf football field on its 41-acre campus, Truesdell said the school made the decision to focus on just one sport for the new field. Although baseball is the athletic field’s primary sport, its versatile design allows the school’s soccer and lacrosse teams to use the field, as well as neighboring Ursuline High School, which also shares the fields with Cardinal Newman.
Cardinal Newman’s soccer team had an opportunity to practice on the field when it was completed during Fall 2009. The students noticed that the look of the field was not only different, but the play of the field was also much faster and far more realistic as compared with other artificial turf fields in the area.
“The feedback we’ve gotten has been very positive,” Truesdell commented. “Our baseball players have been out on the field for batting practice, and they’re very excited for their season to start.”
Source: http://www.tigerturfworld.com/