County of stadium: Blunt County
Location of stadium: W. Broadway St. (US-411) & E. Cedar St., Maryville
Stadium name: Shields Stadium, Never saw a name sign
School Mascot: The Rebels
Colors Red, Black
Coach Derek Hunt
Rank: Overall 14-1, District 6-0, National Rank 56, State (TN) Rank 2
"The Maryville High School football complex will be getting a makeover this spring.
"The Maryville City Schools Board approved a motion Wednesday to replace the AstroTurf field surface at Skeeter Shield Stadium, five years after an artificial surface was initially installed as part of an $800,000 renovation to the football complex. The motion passed four votes to one.
"The field, which is being replaced due to “premature fabric degradation” is in year five of an eight-year warranty.
"The board opted for one of the three upgrade options presented, which not only replaces but upgrades the current surface and fill material. The cost of replacing the turf and the rubber material underneath is estimated at $207,787. The initial price for the installation was quoted at $506,688, but AstroTurf has offered nearly $300,000 in discounts.
"The school is also expecting a $50,000 private donation, lessening the total cost to about $157,000.
"The Maryville Athletic Department is in talks with the school’s equipment supplier Nike — whose product “Nike Grind” will be the upgraded rubber material underneath the turf — about the possibility of a discount to lower the price point further.
"The Maryville Athletic Department and Maryville City Schools discussed a plan to cover the cost of the change with the athletic department and the school system each paying $10,000 annually over the next eight years.
"The Maryville City Schools Board said the upgrade would not interfere with the funding to any other projects on the books for this fiscal year.
'“The bottom line is we are taking advantage of the warranty,” Maryville Athletic Director Larry Headrick told The Daily Times. “We’re just simply piggybacking off that and upgrading with minimal cost to get the best product that they’ve got going right now.”
"The upgrade is coming in response to blades of the synthetic grass field coming up and increasingly worsening the quality of the playing surface, which was guaranteed under the eight-year warranty.
"Former Maryville head football coach and athletic director George Quarles first contacted AstroTurf about the lessening quality of the field before the start of the 2016 football season. Maryville sent samples of the field to the company and AstroTurf visited the field a number of times throughout the fall to inspect the playing surface.
"AstroTurf upgrade
In recent weeks, AstroTurf agreed that replacing the turf would be covered under the warranty.
“AstroTurf has really stepped up, and they want to make sure that we’re happy,” Headrick said. “So they’re completely warranting their product by replacing it.”
"AstroTurf offered to replace the field with the product installed in spring 2012 — same type of turf and underlying materials — for no cost under the existing warranty, and presented Maryville with three other upgrade options.
"The first upgrade option was priced at $107,716 and would have kept the same turf but replaced the rubber material with the Nike Grind product. There would not have been a new warranty with option one.
"Option two would have installed AstroTurf’s 3D3 Blend, the company’s most popular line, for an estimated $200,070.99 after a $150,014 discount from AstroTurf. The school would have gotten a new eight-year warranty under this option.
"Maryville went with option three, which will bring both the 3D3 blend and the Nike Grind to Jim Renfro Field and included a new eight-year warranty. It is the same system that Boyd Buchanan in Chattanooga installed this offseason. AstroTurf added an additional discount beyond the printed material distributed at the meeting.
“It’s an option that looking three, five years down the road seems like it just makes the most sense for the cost and what we are getting,” School Board Chair Bethany Pope said.
"Maryville has targeted two possible installation dates. The first being April 17, shortly after the football team finishes spring practice, in order to have the field installed for high school graduation. The other would be to wait until after graduation and install the new field at some point in May." ~ The Daily Times, By Austin Bornheim, March 30, 2017