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Steamboat Springs football coach Aaron Finch stepped onto the artificial turf field in Colorado Springs before last November's playoff game against Harrison.

The Sailors, traditionally a smaller football team with athleticism and speed, flourished on the con-

sistent artificial surface, scoring 44 points in a first-round win.

"That consistency is huge," Finch said. "You don't have any potholes. The first thing you notice when you walk out on it is, 'wow, this is cushioned.'"

The next week, on a muddy, torn up Gardner Field -- usual mid-November field conditions in Steamboat -- the Sailors scored just 14 points.

On Thursday, the Education Fund Board will vote on a $250,000 gift that will be used to help install an artificial turf surface on Gardner Field.

The $250,000 is roughly half of the estimated cost. The remaining balance will come from private donations -- $175,000 of which already is secured.

"I was first aware people were looking at this three years ago," Finch said. "I was asked as a football coach if I was interested in having one of these fields. I think it's a plus from a competitive standpoint, but that's not the reason to do it. The academics and the safety are the reasons to do it."

Making the grade

Principal Mike Knezevich said each student-athlete misses more than 1.5 hours of class time for each out-of-area game, practice or scrimmage. Many spring sports teams, such as the soccer and lacrosse teams, have to practice until as late as 10 p.m. because of limited gym space.

Wet field conditions render outside fields unusable, forcing teams to play and practice in the Front Range or in Grand Junction.

The Steamboat boys and girls lacrosse teams have not played a home game this season, meaning those student-athletes are on the road several times a week.

"As a principal, my first priority is academics," Knezevich said.

During public comment at Wednesday's Fund Board meeting, the first public meeting held to discuss the possible funding of an artificial turf field, the academic benefits of a new athletic field came up frequently.

The validity of spending Education Fund board money -- raised by a city half-cent sales tax -- on an athletic field came up, as well.

"When you are talking about the actual structural funding of buildings, that type of thing is certainly within the realm of the Fund Board because the structure is for students. It's not off base at all," member Jerry Kozatch said.

"I think it's good that there is some academic reality to this, too. Kids will be spending less time traveling and missing school, although it is a choice. They aren't being forced to play a particular sport."

Tough questions

At Wednesday's meeting, Kozatch was one of several Fund Board members with questions about the artificial turf field. Before Thursday's meeting, Kozatch has a list of items he wants addressed.

Most importantly, he wants the concerns of Carl and Celia Dunham, residents of the neighborhood around the high school, put to rest.

The Dunhams are worried a new field and the increased use is going to create parking, lighting and noise issues.

"I have some concerns with people being on it all hours of the day," Carl Dunham said. "I'm all for artificial turf for high school teams. As soon as we get a field that doesn't show wear or tear, the city is going to want to use it. I don't want to see, in our neighborhood, what happened in the Trafalgar neighborhood."

Emerald Park, a public facility with soccer and baseball diamonds, has increased traffic on Pamela Lane, a residential area with young children.

Carl Dunham, who plans on attending Thursday's meeting, said he wants the Steamboat Springs School District to come up with a plan to limit field use.

"Most of the decisions the Fund Board makes rarely affect anyone outside the education community," Kozatch said. "This affects a neighborhood. Whether we approve this or not, we should be trying to make sure we don't infringe on their reasonable rights as property owners."

Safety and maintenance

Other concerns Kozatch has are the maintenance costs and the safety issues.

The artificial surface being looked at is made from synthetic fibers, recycled rubber tires and sand. It is not the infamous Astroturf, which was essentially green carpet on cement.

Finch has researched the safety benefits.

"As I think about high school kids and football, the life-changing injuries are what you want to avoid," he said. "Anything we can do to minimize those we want to do."

Concussions and serious knee injures occur more frequently on grass fields, according to Michael C. Meyers, who conducted a five-year study comparing the two surfaces at eight high schools. The article appeared in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2004. "The injury rate was similar but the type was different," said Finch, who also read the study. "The loss-of-playing-time injuries are much lower on artificial turf. Obviously, we play on frozen grass fields quite a bit, and those turned out to be the most dangerous type of field to play on."

There also are differences in maintaining a grass field and an artificial turf field.

After the initial price of putting in an artificial turf field -- estimated to be somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000 -- the maintenance costs are minimal.

The life of an artificial turf field is 6 to 10 years, said Paul Kelley with Academy Sports Turf in Englewood. The cost to replace the field is about half of the original price.

"The window of when you can use it in Steamboat is pretty small because there is snow on it, so you would probably get close to 10 years," Kelley said. "There are a couple specialized tools, but they are inexpensive, like $500 for a sweeper unit and a brush attachment is like $2,000 or $3,000. We recommend brushing it every other month. You should never have to add more rubber."

An artificial surface doesn't need water, and comes with lines. Painting additional lines won't have to be done before every game as is the case with the grass field.

"(The turf) holds up in cold temperatures," Kelley said. "Now, you can plow the (grass) field off in March and start using it, but it still will be frozen. This, as soon as you get the snow off, is a consistent surface. It doesn't matter the temperature."

Case studies

Steamboat can look south for artificial field success stories.

Vail Mountain School, located at 8,200 feet near the base of Vail Resorts, installed artificial turf three years ago.

On March 14, nearly one month before the Steamboat girls soccer team played a home game, the Vail Mountain School hosted Basalt.

"We had 15-foot snow banks around it, but the field looked great," Vail Mountain School athletics director Dan Verbeten said. "If you can keep it mostly clear, as soon as you get sunshine you have those black pellets in there, and it melts very quickly. It drains wonderfully. We did not have standing water on our field this spring."

In Edwards, Freedom Park is a multi-use complex with grass fields and one artificial surface field.

"A lot of people would rather play games on that," said Jim Sanders, facilities superintendent with the Western Eagle County Metropolitan Recreation District. "There are a couple brushes or brooms that will fluff it up after some hard play. We brush it maybe every couple weeks. The broom is more aggressive. We maybe do that twice a year.

"That is really the only maintenance field work you do. ... We wouldn't be having sports in February and March or after November if we didn't have this field."

No one disputes the inconvenience of playing spring sports in Steamboat. Heavy snowfall is part of life. No one disputes that it is disadvantageous to practice field games like lacrosse indoors. No one disputes that Steamboat's student athletes deserve home games.

On Thursday, however, the Fund Board will decide if $250,000 is too much to ask the Fund Board to give.

Either way, Kozatch said the decision shouldn't be based on emotion. It should be based on being responsible with taxpayers' dollars. "That's very important to me," he said.