Tecumseh Public Schools' Indian Stadium to have turf replaced

TECUMSEH — The worn-out, old artificial turf at Indian Stadium will soon be replaced at a cost of $558,000 to be spread over two years.

AstroTurf Great Lakes of Novi is letting the district pay over time, with a $300,000 payment this fiscal year, which ends June 30, and the remainder being paid in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The funding is coming from the school district’s capital improvement fund. If all goes as planned, the turf will be fully installed in July, according to the district’s director of communications, Victor Pratt.

The turf is 13 years old and overdue for replacement. Indian Stadium hosts the Tecumseh Public Schools’ football program for seventh through 12th grades, community and club football programs, lacrosse, soccer, marching band, track, powderpuff football and graduation, Superintendent Rick Hilderley said.

“We are very pleased and excited to get the new turf installed on our field. In order to be certified for competition the field must be inspected every year. After the last inspection we were told that the field was at the end of its life, and it was entirely possible that it would not pass the next inspection. For this reason, we needed to move forward with replacing the turf,” school board President Tony Rebottaro said in an email.

Last year when the district received that information, the school board allocated 50% of the money needed to replace the turf in the district’s 2022-23 budget. The other half will be funded from the 2023-24 budget. Spreading capital projects like this over time makes them much easier to manage, Rebottaro said.

“Aside from the obvious fact that our high school football and lacrosse teams play on this field, the field is used by many other community-based teams and organizations. Many will say that this turf only benefits the football teams but as I said it is also used by our lacrosse teams and if you attend a football game, you will see that the band performs at half time, the cheer team performs at the game and the students and community take great pride in supporting our teams. Sporting events at the stadium are a great source of community pride and everyone in the community benefits from this,” Rebottaro said. 

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tecumseh schools' Indian Stadium turf to be replaced