Oak Lawn Football Field Missing Turf

The football team might have a little problem come week one of the upcoming season: no field to play on. Though the school does have a football field, complete with stands, goal posts and scoreboard, right now there is no turf for the players to compete on.

Because of set backs due to an , inclement weather in the spring and a missed signature in the contract, the school could miss having the turf in place by game time on Friday, Aug. 26.

During the Oak Lawn High School District 229 Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, July 20, Assistant Superintendent Rick Hendricks discussed the problem with the board in open session.

“The football field is moving along, not as quickly as I would like it to, but it is moving along,” Hendricks said. “We've got basically the plumbing and electrical work, the majority of that is done. … The majority of the excavation work is done.”

Though the majority of the work is done in some areas, Hendricks said that Field Turf informed him in an email on July 19 that school's order for the product had not been processed yet. This was due to a missed signature in the middle of the contract, although the end signatures were inked.

After the company contracted to install the turf, J.E.M. Morris, finalized the paper work, Hendricks said that the order should be at the school soon.

“We're now two weeks out, we're not going to get the turf until the first week of August,” he said.

The set back could jeopardize not only the first game of the season, but also the team scrimmage on Aug. 19 as well. Although Hendricks is cautiously optimistic that neither will be interrupted.

“Our completion date was August 15th, that is what our target was all along,” he said. “I have not changed that in my mind. I may be unrealistic with that, but my expectation is that that is what they committed to, so it's still there.

"More than likely, we're not going to make that. The 15th is a Monday, if we made the 19th, at this point we'd be very happy.”

According to Superintendent Michael Riordan, if the construction or instillation does hit another snag, the board has informally reached out to St. Xavier University about Oak Lawn hosting its week one game at the University.