ALL PHOTOS BY DON McDERMOTT
Thousands of tons of natural grass and dirt were removed from the Pahrump Valley High School football stadium, to prepare the site for the installation of a $700,000 synthetic turf field that will be used for both football and soccer. Workers had to dig down anywhere from one to three feet to remove the “old” dirt; the field was subsequently filled with up to 20,000 tons of dirt trucked in. Ron Murphy Construction, H&M Wholesale Pipe, Pahrump Rentals, Home Depot and the Pahrump Nugget were all involved as sub-contractors on the project that ended Aug. 17. At one point, the entire field was sprayed with an anti-bacterial soap to clean the synthetic lawn. White lines on the turf are for football, while the yellow stripes are for soccer.
The original Pahrump Valley High School football field, as it appeared in circa 1974; the 2010 stadium is
shown during a Trojans workout last week. Pahrump Valley opens its season at home Friday against Las Vegas Mountain View Christian. In the other photos clockwise: this crumbed rubber material is under the surface, providing players with a sponge-like cushion to compete on; the yellow turf outlines the soccer field at the stadium (in the background is Floyd Field, home of the PVHS fast-pitch softball team); new goalposts, constructed to accommodate both football and soccer, were installed shortly before the 10-week long project ended.
I think that now that we have football and soccer taking care of we should focus on where the baseball team will be playing and how much of a disadvantage they will be at playing at the park. And for the seniors i really doubt that they would like to finish out there high school career playing down at a field that isn’t even close to being as nice as the one at the high school.
I kind of caught wind this morning about the baseball program playing their home games at the park. I am confused as to why this is? Didnt the school just pay a ton of money to rehab the soccer field, and now it is going to be used for something else? 6 years ago, PVHS had one of the worst baseball facilities in southern Nevada. John Bradley came in and flip-flopped the field, and made it one of the nicest park around. I came in after Bradley and added batting cages, upgraded the overall wellbeing of the facility. Someone at the school needs to understand something: The baseball field is for the baseball program, not the football team, not the PE classes, not anyone else. You rarely see anyone on the football field. You rarely see anyone using any other facility from any other sport other than the program associated with that facility. During my time at PVHS, I had a hard time getting into the weight room, could not use the gym (which was understandable), etc. Why is that, when I had the football team practicing daily in the outfield of the baseball facility, tearing up my infield, and destroying my outfield grass, and dugouts. Wasn’t so much of a big deal, because you gotta be a team player, and do what is best for the kids. Did I EVER see anyone from the football program out there on a Saturday helping clean up their mess, and re-seeding the outfield, doing anything?? NOPE
Moving the baseball team to the park is a joke. I cannot believe that anyone would allow this, but when you are speaking of PVHS then I guess you can believe it. Great job, great move for the kids. Lets play the home basketball games at Bob Rudd, and run track in the Nugget Parking lot. Football can be played on 160, just make sure you watch the oncoming traffic. WOW.