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Boosters to install new water system

By Staff | May 6, 2009

Thanks to the work of the Tyler Consolidated High School Athletic Boosters, Knight Stadium will have a professional sprinkler system in place at the football field.

The Tyler County Board of Education approved the expenditure of $4,000 to purchase materials for a brand-new underground sprinkler system. The work will be done by Athletic Booster parents, several of whom are contractors.

The new system will finally fix one of two major problems the field has had over the years.

“Throughout the year, starting the first week I was on the job up and to this point, a couple of things have come up with the football field,” explained TCHS Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Krista DeVaughn. “The drainage issue was solved with the french drains that were put in when Mr. (Kent) Yoho was still in the position. Another problem has been getting the actual turf we need.”

“Part of that problem was the irrigation system; trying to somehow keep it watered,” added DeVaughn. “You had sprinklers you had to move every hour or half hour. That meant manpower down there to constantly do that. It wasn’t working and all the money that was being spent on grass with good intentions was just lost because the water system wasn’t there.”

Athletic Booster members designed the project and will be contributing manpower and equipment, saving the school a considerable amount of money otherwise.

“I am fortunate enough right now to have some parents involved in the boosters who have their own contracting companies,” said DeVaughn. “With equipment that would have been otherwise expensive to pay to come in or to rent, they’re willing to bring in their own equipment, workers, and use parents that are here as laborers so we would not be paying for labor to put in a sprinkler system onto the field.”

It puts the sprinkler system into a three-zone set. Each zone will have four pop-up sprinklers that would come out of that zone. Each zone would be regulated separately, so if there was just one certain area of the field that would need more water, only one sprinkler would operate instead of running them all. This, without having to pay for labor, is estimated to cost $4,000.

Another innovation will be the use of creek water in the sprinkler system. A pump was donated to the school last fall. The pump would be housed at the actual creek level. That would then come up from the creek and tie into the storm drain to bring that across. Housed on the visitors side of the field would be a valve control box. The project will not involve heavy equipment on the track.