St. Edward Central Catholic High School is searching for a location to play football after its field was damaged by weed killer.Photo: wgntv.com
A high school football team is now having to decide where to relocate their Friday football game after their field was damaged from the accidental use of weed killer instead of fertilizer.
“The company we have for maintaining our field mistakenly put down a weed killer instead of fertilizer and a portion of the grass on the field is dead,” athletic director P.J. White told The Chicago Tribune.
St. Edward Central Catholic High School in Elgin, Illinois, has yet to decide where it will play its Friday night game against Immaculate Conception High School of Elmhurst, Illinois. Immaculate Conception’s artificial turf field at Plunkett Park is currently being considered.
“The safety of our athletes will be the No. 1 thing we consider when we determine whether this game or any others are moved,” White said. “Right now the field is in no worse condition than many fields are later on in the season.”
From end zone to end zone, about two-thirds of Greg True field is damaged. The mistake occurred before the Sept. 4 home game, but St. Edward played without any issues.
“It was an honest mistake made in the mixing of chemicals for the field and they feel terrible about it,” White said. “Someone grabbed the wrong bottle when they were mixing chemicals.”
Other schools have also volunteered the use of their fields.
The company responsible has currently been putting a top dressing on the field in an attempt to get spur some kind of growth.
“If there’s any kind of blessing or anything like that, it’s that we have needed resurfacing of the playing field for a time,” White said. “After this season would be an ideal time to look at that.”
