In some ways, the 2009 football season was something of a nightmare for Ridgeland High School.

Yes, the team won nine games and a second consecutive region championship, but it was also a season that caused more than a few headaches for head coach Mark Mariakis.

An abnormally wet fall added to the damage that had already been done to the football field in years’ past. As a result, some games had to be moved to Thursday nights in advance of inclement weather, and poor field conditions forced Ridgeland to move a state playoff game to Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium.

The problems didn’t end there, however, as the effects from last fall carried all the way over to the spring, forcing Ridgeland’s soccer teams to split their home games between the football practice field and the field at the Rossville Athletic Complex.

But all those past problems, are just a couple weeks away from being a thing of the past.

A new, artificial surface is being installed by Dalton-based Astroturf, a company whose products have been used by NFL teams, college and high school programs, and even the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing, China.

Astroturf Brand Manager, Andy Belles, says the turf being installed at Ridgeland is,”the most state-of-the-art product on the market today.”

The turf itself will use a blend of polyethylene fibers, which will produce an upright, softer, more grass-like surface than the nylon fibers that have been used in the past. The nylon fibers in the “root zone” of the turf will help keep the rubber in-fill locked in place, giving the surface more of a cushion and making it safer for players over the life of the field.

But while the new surface will be safer for players, it will also be safer for the environment.

The rubber in-fill of Ridgeland’s field, made locally in Calhoun, will be a mix of some 25,000 recycled tires, which would have been destined for a landfill. The backing and coating of the turf will use the equivalent of 48,000 plastic bottles.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and Astroturf’s sister company recently signed a deal that will give the company all the recycled plastic from Yellowstone National Park, and the company is taking big strides in its effort to get away from the use of petroleum-based prouducts.

“We have a pioneered a technology that uses soybean oil by-products,” Belles explained. “We’ve replaced about 70 percent of petro-chemicals used in the backing with the soybean oil by-product. It’s a short-term renewable resource, grown by American farmers, that conforms with the Farm Bill, which was implemented to use renewable resources in the U.S. whenever possible.”

In addition to the soybean by-products, Astroturf also uses a filler material, coal fly ash, which is a by-product from the electric generator industry.

“The coal fly ash has already been burned in generators so it won’t burn again,” Belles added “It’s a little more expensive, but makes the product even more fire-retardant.”

Water was also a huge factor in the decision to go with the artificial turf.

Studies show that a well-maintained natural grass field will use between 500,000-1 million gallons of water a year. And while the turf field can be watered to combat extremely high temperatures, all watering, as well as the need for pesticides, fertilizers, and hydro-carbons emissions from gas mowers and other field equipment, will be eliminated.”

“My main concern going in was how the field was going to play and how it was going to look,” Mariakis said. “But once we got into it, and talked to school board, the superintendent and other members of the community, people wanted to know how “green” it was going to be. And as much as possible, it will be a green product, from saving water to using recycled products, which was very satisfying to hear from my standpoint.

“Water, especially in the last 10 years, has been a big issue. We’ve had a drought several of those years and been told not to water the field because of it. With people needing drinking water, football fields were on the bottom of the totem pole. But it was an issue because the dying grass was becoming a safety issue for the kids.”

Mariakis also said the turf would save “endless” man-hours that had been spent mowing, weed-eating, fertilizing, and watering the field to get it ready for play in the fall. He estimated that in summers’ past, 60-90 minutes a day were spent on mowing the field alone.

“There’s nothing wrong with natural grass,” Belles added. “But with weather conditions and usage that occurs, you end up reducing the amount of time you can play on it. Now, with the artificial turf, you can increase the amount of time you can use the field.”

Mariakis quickly agreed.

“That was one of the biggest selling points I presented to the school board,” he said. “We were going to have to spend a lot of money to fix the field, whether we went with grass or turf. But instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and only getting to use the field maybe 20 times a year (with natural grass), we’re going to be able to use it limitless times every year.

“Take the rec leagues that want to use the field on Saturdays. It’s been a big issue as long as I’ve been at Ridgeland because the field just couldn’t take all the abuse. Now with the turf, we could have a rec game before a Friday night high school game without any problems.”

But Mariakis said perhaps the biggest advantage to going with the turf is the money that will now be able to be used for the entire athletics program at the school.

“For us, it’s an average savings of between 10,000-25,000 dollars a year, just on field maintenance,” he explained. “I call it ‘lost money’, because it was for things that went on the field that you can’t see. Now, that money will go back to the kids, not in the football program, but in all the other sports that the athletic department budget goes to assist.”