St. Thomas Aquinas Building a Legacy on FieldTurf

A championship high school football program needs a championship-level field.

St. Thomas Aquinas High School, winner of three consecutive 7A Florida high school football titles and a perennial national powerhouse, punctuated their 2016 state title by choosing FieldTurf, for the second time, for their game field.

“The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders football program has a long tradition of championship excellence, so we expected the same out of our turf,” St. Thomas Athletic Director George Smith said. “We chose FieldTurf because it’s a powerhouse in the turf industry, and because their commitment to being the best reflects our institution.”

St. Thomas chose Revolution 360 for its legendary Brian Piccolo Field and opted for the Classic HD system for the school’s practice field.

The Raiders installed their first FieldTurf field back in 2006 and have since installed two new surfaces – a practice field in 2013 and a new game field in 2016.

More than 20 varsity and junior varsity athletic teams use the fields to practice and play, including the Raiders’ lacrosse team, which went undefeated in 2016 and won district and state titles.

In all, the high school’s athletic program has won more than 100 Florida High School Athletic Association state championships.

REVOLUTION 360

The Raiders football program will play all their home games on a Revolution 360 field, the same field used by this year’s Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots.

Named after the concept of completeness, Revolution 360 is the industry’s first fiber to have achieved a score of 83 on the Fiber Performance Index (FPI). Introduced to the marketplace by Labosport – a leading laboratory dedicated to sports surfaces and equipment – as part of the latest addition to its Certification Program, Labosport’s FPI establishes the ultimate fiber ‘index’ – the rating of an artificial turf fiber, to help prospective turf buyers understand and weigh the individual qualities of a turf fiber.

FieldTurf’s Revolution 360 turf system is also the only one in the industry to score perfect 10’s in the rigorous Lisport test at Penn State University’s Center for Sports Surface Research. Fibers from the turf showed no signs of failure after 150,000 testing cycles.

St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the over 100 schools and organizations across Florida who've chosen FieldTurf. A list which includes the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Miami.

Learn more Here.

CLASSIC HD

Every championship athlete knows that practice influences what happens on game night. That’s why the Raiders chose Classic HD for their practice field; it provides a safe, durable playing surface that reduces injury risk.

The Classic HD’s strength lies in its split-film fibers, designed and produced in FieldTurf’s Georgia manufacturing plant. Each fiber has a unique pattern and cut that help this field reduce splash, or the spray of rubber granules that occurs on contact with turf.

Each fiber is also fortified with extra UV protection, a crucial enhancement that helps the Raiders’ practice field endure Florida’s searing summers.

Severe weather is no match for the Classic HD, either. Both the Revolution 360 and Classic HD feature Surelock coating, a 40-percent porous backing that drains fields with lightning-quick speed and dominates the competition.

Learn more Here.