Posted: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:19 PM - 9,643 Readers
By: Austin-American Statesman
Bob Shelton is accomplished enough in coaching football to work at a stadium named for him.
But even Shelton is not adept enough to attain one critical goal: inducing the skies to open up over the practice fields at Hays High School.
Not that he doesn't try.
"I pray for rain," said Shelton, who is also the athletic director at Hays. "I pray every day."
He's not alone among coaches and administrators at area schools.
Drought in Central Texas has left playing fields hard and dusty, conditions that could become worse in Austin, where city officials have enacted stricter watering restrictions that begin Monday.
The Austin Independent School District's varsity football teams play on artificial turf at three venues: Burger Center, House Park and Nelson Field. But middle school and sub-varsity teams play on grass at the Noack fields in Northeast Austin and at the Nelson and Burger baseball facilities. There are eight football games a week on those four fields, AISD athletic director Tommy Cox said.
Varsity teams practice on grass at their schools.
Right now, AISD is allowed to water the fields twice a week. Beginning Monday, the district can water once a week.
Cox worries about the change.
"When your ground is hard, there is concern about ankle injuries and abrasions," he said. "In extreme drought conditions, you need three days of watering to keep the ground soft when you don't have rain."
At least AISD fields get some water.
photo by Kelly WestShelton said Hays High has not watered its two grass practice fields since the spring. The varsity and four sub-varsity football teams share those fields.
"Our grass is pretty well gone," Shelton said.
Water use by Hays CISD is regulated by the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. In order to meet a 30 percent reduction mandated by the conservation district, the Hays school district has stopped watering its practice fields, said R.C. Herrin, executive director of operations for Hays CISD.
Bob Shelton Stadium has artificial turf, but the coach is reluctant to hold practice there because of the increased heat on the field.
"It's probably 10 degrees hotter," Shelton said. "It's very noticeable."
St. Stephen's, a private school in West Austin that gets water from Lake Austin, has five grass athletic fields, two that are normally used for football practice.
Now it has one. School officials have stopped watering the second practice field, which is used for softball in the spring. That has enabled St. Stephen's to cut water usage on its fields by 20 percent, athletic director Jon McCain said.
"The outfield of our softball field looks like West Texas right now," McCain said.
St. Stephen's has five football teams, and "we've had to shift practice schedules to get them all on the same field," McCain said.
"The one field is getting chopped up. At some point, you have to be careful about safety on a hard field."
St. Stephen's does not practice on the grass field it uses for games, but McCain said, "that could be the next step."
The University of Texas, as a state entity, is exempt from City of Austin water restrictions, but the athletic department has made cuts in water usage, one of which has nothing to do with drought.
The football field at Royal-Memorial Stadium was converted from grass to artificial turf this past offseason.
"We'll use water to cool it down for game days, but our consumption will be miniscule," said Jim Baker, the school's associate athletic director for events and operations. "In the past, we watered three or four days a week for five or six hours (each night)."
UT waters its football practice fields, and the field in the soccer stadium, three times a week each, in the morning. That represents a reduction from four or five days a week in the past, Baker said.
Texas State also plays football on artificial turf. The state school is exempt from City of San Marcos watering restrictions on its grass fields for football practice and other sports.
Cody Farr, director of sports field maintenance at Texas State, said he angles for efficiency while watering those fields.
Farr said developing a deep root zone in the spring and early summer results in less water usage now. Farr said that, by beginning watering at 10 p.m., he can avoid some of the evaporation that takes place if he starts earlier in the night.
"I practice conservation methods year round," he said.
