Now You Know It's Serious - TX Drought Turning HS Football Fields To Dust, Despite Watering

[hatrack]

EDIT

At the start of a recent school day, Coach Shay Avants, 35, strides past the orange and black "Robert Lee Steers" sign to survey the field. He glances up. Gray clouds have been roiling since dawn. All across town, named after the Confederate general, people are talking rain. Since the start of summer, they have received less than an inch. Avants stops under a goal post and kicks the field. Dust rises. That's not uncommon in the red clay fields of Coke County, about 250 miles west of Dallas. Around here they quote an old saying about football — "three yards and a cloud of dust" — with the emphasis on dust. But it's not supposed to be this bad.

They have been watering twice a day. The record-breaking heat wave evaporated everything, even overnight. Nearby San Angelo recorded 97 days of triple-digit temperatures. "We seeded," Avants says, "but the seed never came out." The storm has cooled the temperature into the mid-70s, but it will rise to 100 by day's end. The coach looks up again and scowls. "We're not going to have a miracle overnight," he says. "I'm sure the opposing team … I can't imagine what they'll think."

The opposing team is the Blackwell Hornets. The Steers once felt sorry for them because they trained on such a paltry little field. Last year, the Hornets got artificial turf, and with it, a sense of superiority. But even schools with artificial turf, including Robert Lee's longtime rival, the Bronte Longhorns, have suffered. At Wylie High School near Dallas, where the temperature on its field reached 185 degrees this summer — coaches snapped photos of thermometers to prove it — crews started watering the fake turf to cool it down, and practices were held on a grass field instead.

In Robert Lee, problems with water go back years before the current drought. The level of a nearby lake dropped during the last decade, and with it the town and school population, with 100 fewer students. Seven years ago, the school rolls fell to about 275 students, down from five to two busloads, and the Steers were forced to go from 11-man to six-man football.

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-football-20111004,0,5575289.story

[aquart]

1. THAT's what they water?

As for artificial turf, on a hot day that must feel like football in Hell.

[truebrit71]

2. Time to build indoor air-conditioned astro-turf stadiums..

:sarcasm:

[n2doc]

4. You are not far off

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Texas-school-unveils-nation-s-first-red-turf-hig?urn=highschool-306272

[Javaman]

3. Last year at this time...

(I never water, I don't believe in watering yards. I think it's a waste of resources, however, what we are experiencing here in texas is pretty epic.)

my back and front yard were green.

They went from green to brown to straw to dirt and straw to dirt.

It's so bad here now, that when the wind blows we have to close the windows otherwise we get a mini dust storm coming in.

There were a few hold outs in my neighborhood, watering at night, etc, but now that we are in stage 2 and can only water once a week via a sprinkler, they have given up as well.

I'm going to put in buffalo grass as soon as we get any rain at all. It's a native and needs virtually no water. why am I putting in grass when I hate lawns so much, well before this drought, I didn't have to worry about erosion, now I do.

But I first have to get some rain...any rain. Deep down, I know I'm lying to myself and know perfectly well it's only going to get worse.

[kenfrequed]

5. F@$&ing Karma

For the state that worships football almost as a second organized religion and has a massive amoutn of free market conservatives as well as a lot of big oil bastards from way back this is your goddamned comeuppance. Reap it.

[Viking12]

6. Pray Harder!

God Dammit!

[Nihil]

7. Maybe someone did ...

"Please don't let my team get trampled in the mud again this season?"

"OK - done!"

:evilgrin: