CONWAY, Ark. — In recent months, the University of Central Arkansas has announced plans to add luxury suites to Estes Stadium in 2012 and a new strength and conditioning complex to the Pepsi Americas Center indoor practice facility.
Now, the school is making one more major announcement: artificial turf.
Purple and gray artificial turf.
Beginning mid-April, Central Arkansas will replace its natural grass football field with a GeoGreen replicated grass surface from GeoSurfaces – the same company which installed the turf at the school’s baseball stadium last fall.
But unlike the baseball – and most – turf, the surface of First Security Field at Estes Stadium will not contain even a trace of green. Instead the school has opted for a unique design incorporating the Central Arkansas school colors of purple and gray, with black and white accents.
In contrast from solid-colored surfaces such as the famed blue turf of Football Bowl Subdivision power Boise State and – more recently – the red turf at reigning Football Championship Subdivision national champion Eastern Washington, the playing surface at Central Arkansas will feature purple and gray alternating in five-yard sections from the goal lines out to the 45-yard lines. Between the 45s will be a 10-yard gray segment with the logo – which will span 20 yards – centered at midfield. The end zones will be black with “Bears” in white lettering with secondary bear paw logos on either side, giving it an appearance unrivaled anywhere in college football.
“The decision to install synthetic turf was one that came quickly,” said Dr. Brad Teague, Director of Athletics. “We decided to use that opportunity to do something unique. We didn’t want to copy Boise State or Eastern Washington, so we developed our own color scheme. This scheme was vetted out to our many constituent groups and the vast majority of those groups chose this non-traditional color scheme for our turf. Our student-athletes are the most excited about this look, but our donor base was also very positive about the design.”
Clint Conque, entering his 12th season as head coach, sees numerous advantages for the UCA program with the installation of the turf.
“First and foremost, it’s very functional and gives us a consistent surface for practice every day as well as on game day,” said Conque, the winningest coach in school history. “Certainly for our fans it brings some uniqueness and really rings of school spirit with the purple and gray and the touch of black in the end zones. I think overall everybody’s excited.”
Included in that excitement are recruits.
“It may give us a bump in recruiting,” Conque said. “This recruiting class liked the ideas we presented to them during the recruiting part of the year. Because of the uniqueness and visibility, there’s a lot of excitement and buzz going to be generated. Plus, it’s just an awesome-looking field. We’ve got a chance to separate ourselves a little bit from our peers in recruiting, which is the lifeblood of what we do. We’re always looking for that extra edge in the recruiting process. We live in a different era and they like things that make you go ‘wow’. This field definitely has a ‘wow’ factor to it.”
Current players are equally as enthusiastic about the new surface, which will be ready well ahead of the 2011 season that begins at home on Sept. 1.
“They showed us the final draft of the turf and we’re really excited,” said senior offensive lineman Matt Dickerson of Monroe, La. “I was shocked at first, I was thinking it was going to just be something more normal. The black end zones and purple and gray alternating was surprising, but I like it. It’s something different and shows we’re not trying to be just an everyday school. We’re trying to do something different, trying to do bigger and better things here. We’re trying to grow and take this organization to the next level and I think this is one step toward that.”
Terence Bobo, a junior running back from Atkins, echoed the sentiment.
“It’ll be great to be on turf, and with it being purple and gray makes it even better,” he said. “I was shocked, I thought it would be green but it was crazy. Coach brought it in to us during a team meeting and everybody was excited about getting it. I want something that’s going to stand out and maybe get us some exposure and help out recruiting-wise. Before they showed it to us they showed recruits and I think that helped out in recruiting a whole lot.”
The unique turf is a result of a thorough process by the athletic department, developing a number of options – both with green and school-colored options – and seeking a variety of opinions throughout the community in order to come up with the cutting-edge playing surface.
“I have been impressed with the extensive input that the athletic department sought in coming up with the final decision,” said Dr. Allen C. Meadors, University of Central Arkansas President. “It is important to understand that the field is another recruiting tool just like uniforms, weight rooms, win/loss records, coaches and our current players. Initial research indicates that this color mix will be a positive in the recruiting process.”
“Our department is excited about the opportunities this unique design will afford us in terms of marketing, promotions, brand and enthusiasm,” Teague said. “We also feel it will create an advantage for our football program both in recruiting and game preparation.
“We realize we’re straying from the norm, and that’s precisely what we want. This was not a decision made on a whim. Our department did a great deal of research and sought much feedback. We are excited to unveil this new field and can’t wait to see it installed.”
The installation, which will begin shortly after the completion of the Bears’ spring practice schedule, is scheduled to take approximately 45 days – putting it on pace to be finished over the summer, in time for the Bears to go through their entire fall camp on the surface.
“Our guys are excited about playing on a consistent surface,” Conque said. “It will create great consistency not only in games but in practice. We’ll use the playing field as a practice facility much more moving forward than we did when we had the grass surface. Because of the uniqueness in colors, it’ll have that ‘wow’ factor to fans and other players, but we will be very used to it because we’ll work on it virtually every day. When you think of having grass practice fields, our indoor practice facility and now a state-of-the-art consistent playing surface at First Security Field here at Estes Stadium, we can get quite a bit of work done, moreso than we were able to in the past.”
The turf, along with the GeoFlo drainage blanket system, will also eliminate costs associated with the upkeep of a natural surface. Officials, including a campus cost-containment committee, estimate savings of approximately $100,000 per year.
It also serves as the latest in a number of improvements surrounding the UCA football program, with a new strength & conditioning complex and luxury suites all scheduled to be in place before the start of the 2012 season.
“The stars and moons are aligning for us,” Conque said. “We’ve been competitive in facilities but there are some areas where we’re behind. The state-of-the-art strength and conditioning complex will give us a huge recruiting advantage. The skyboxes – there are only two or three other schools in the conference that may have them so that puts us on par there. Then with the unique turf, there’s a lot of positives. It’s a great time to be in our program. If we continue to have success on the field – which I’m very hopeful of that – along with the facilities we’ve got a chance to take this to a higher level.”
