By TYLER HENRY Salina Post contributor
Despite the best efforts of construction crews at Enviroturf, the new field at Minneapolis High School will still not be ready in time for their matchup with Republic County on Friday.
This will be the second home game lost to the Lions due to delays on the field's completion. However, instead of handing the Buffalos a home game, Minneapolis will battle Republic County in Concordia.
At this point in their season, the Lions will have just two home games this year, the next of which is scheduled for October 2nd against Hoisington.
Once finished, the field will serve not only the high school football team, but also athletes involved in baseball and softball, track and field, and lower levels of football. Minneapolis also plans to use the field to host several future community events.
“I hope the community sees the benefit of what they’re building here,” Minneapolis alumni and project visionary Scott Worlock said.
The project, spearheaded by Worlock and carried out by EnviroTurf, was put on the table when Minneapolis began discussing a plan to patch up the old field. But for Warlock, the dream of something better had been on his mind since his playing days.
“This is something that I’ve always wanted,” he said. “I wanted to play on a turf field when I was growing up, seeing how terrible our field was with all the holes and crooked lines bothered me.”
The school eventually agreed to put the money that it would have spent fixing and maintaining the old field towards new turf. Once the plan was in motion, work on the project began, but a number of factors slowed the construction.
A week of progress was lost due to heavy rain during the summer, and Covid-19 set several other state projects back, leaving equipment needed to finish the project unavailable to the crews at Minneapolis.
The delays, while unavoidable, have been very frustrating to coaches and players alike, as the 2020 football season marches on.
“I look at it every day and sometimes I wish they’d just put a bubble over it so I couldn’t see and worry about when it’s getting done,” Minneapolis head coach Tom Flax said.