Greece Central School District Completes Nine-Field Project with FieldTurf & Chenango Contracting

When voters in the Greece (N.Y.) Central School District overwhelmingly approved a $107.8 million referendum in 2018 to tackle renovations and repairs at all 17 schools, upgrading athletic fields at the four high schools was a high priority.

All told, the district now boasts nine new FieldTurf fields — making this one of the largest projects in New York for FieldTurf and partner Chenango Contracting. The project took place over two years and was completed in summer 2021 in collaboration with CPL: Architecture – Engineering – Planning, Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture and LeChase Construction.

New multi-sport stadium fields at Arcadia, Athena and Olympia High Schools feature FieldTurf CORE, the company’s premier artificial turf system that is designed with the first-ever multi-layer, dual-polymer fiber. FieldTurf CORE reinvents the playing field, and redefines the player experience.

Additionally, a new all-turf baseball field was installed at Olympia High, with Arcadia High and Athena High each receiving a new baseball infields. Odyssey Academy, which serves grades 6 through 12, received a new all-turf softball field, while new softball infields were installed at both Arcadia and Athena.

The baseball fields feature DoublePlay Natural, and softball fields TripleThreat Natural, a synthetic surface designed to play like natural grass and clay. In developing the product, FieldTurf analyzed ball-surface interaction, speed and consistency on a variety of systems and created the new systems to emulate the best results.

“It’s very tough to play here in the spring, with all the wet weather,” said Mark Celenza, Regional Business Director for Chenango Contracting. “There is a trend toward artificial turf baseball and softball fields, and I think Greece is on the leading edge of that.”

“All nine fields are a major accomplishment,” added Louis Bianchi, Senior Architect for the Greece Central School District, who also was part of a group that traveled with Celenza and other Chenango officials to Calhoun, Ga., to tour FieldTurf’s manufacturing facility and visit Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, one of FieldTurf’s highest-profile venues

“We were blown away with what we saw and experienced,” Bianchi said. “FieldTurf management made a presentation giving a comprehensive overview of their products and services, answered all of our questions, and provided an eye-opening tour of their manufacturing facility where we were able to see product in production and actually stand on the various products we were considering. The capstone of the trip was being able to stand and run on the CORE field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and actually see a Major League Soccer game on the product we ended up purchasing for our three multi-use fields.”

Greece Central School District utilized the SmartBuy Cooperative Purchasing Program and Keystone Purchasing Network (KPN), to purchase the fields.

As the 2022 spring sports season approaches, Kathleen Graupman, School Superintendent, said "excitement is building for players to put the new baseball and softball fields to good use. What’s more, school pride among students has increased, and district residents whose children participated in free fall events and clinics compared the fields to those on college campuses."

“I would recommend FieldTurf and Chenango in a heartbeat, and have already done so,” Bianchi said. “The CORE product is amazing and has fulfilled all of our needs. Same thing with the baseball and softball fields. Our fields are a tremendous asset to the district and the Town of Greece.”