By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Yukon’s Miller Stadium is receiving a facelift to the field portion of the new stadium.
A new artificial turf has been installed and workmen are currently re-surfacing the track.
Yukon Athletic Director Mike Clark said it took approximately three weeks to complete the work to the turf and is also looking at three weeks (by the end of June) to have the track complete.
The work for the field was completed by Field Turf, who also subcontracted out the work for the track.
“We are happy with the way the field turned out,” Clark said. “It is a softer turf than what we had and it is unique, we are the only one in the state to have this kind of turf.
“We walked on five or six different turf fields before we decided on this one and had several companies that could do the work. It has a certain type of fiber that holds the rubber marbles in and makes it a softer surface. Now, we need a good rain on it to settle the rubber marbles down.”
The changes to the field will now have the end zones white with red Yukon and Millers in opposite end zones. There is a shading every 10 yards on the playing field to set it off with bolder numbers to set off the yard lines. There is also the words Yukon’s Finest between the 20 and 30 yard lines.
The old turf was 10 years old and was showing its wear. Clark also said that when Rayo OKC (who played on the field in 2016) laid down their turf over the top, it pushed down the artificial grass and helped lead to it wearing out.
The new track is expected to be finished in three weeks as well and the old surface as been scraped off the base.
“People complimented us that out track facility was one of the best around and we wanted to do the best job we can to keep it that way,” Clark said. “One good thing about no one at school was we were able to get the crews in and work on the fields and have them ready to go by July and not having it pushed in August and affect practices.”
