The much-anticipated renovation of Keith "Duke" Roman Field has been basically stuck looking more like a sandlot than a gridiron for the last month and a half.
While some had optimistically hoped for the Douglas football team to open their home schedule at the $2 million complex last week against McQueen, others remained slightly more realistic, aiming for homecoming Oct. 6.
The only real activity on the field for the last month, however, has been students from a rival school planting a tree in the compacted dirt where artificial turf will eventually be installed and a crew from Sportexe coming out last week to evaluate the soil.
"Obviously, there is a construction delay," Douglas principal Marty Swisher said. "It has to do with the soil stability on the field.
"There was some question about the size of the rock put down. They did a soil sample about a week ago and they were concerned about whether it would be compacted enough."
Douglas is now hoping to play its home finale against Wooster at the new field Oct. 26. The game would serve both as homecoming and senior night.
The problem with the soil was just one of several hang-ups with the project since it got under way in March.
Among the highlights were the contractors being unable to procure the needed asphalt to pave the track area due to summer road construction and the turf company mis-measuring the field, causing a re-order of the turf itself.
"Earlier in the summer, Sportexe gave a tentative sign-off on the lower layers groundwork and so it proceeded," Swisher said. "Once the installation crew showed up, they said they weren't able to proceed on the surface."
Beginning Monday, Horizon Construction will begin filling the field area with more decomposed granite and compact it again to ensure that the surface will be solid enough to put turf on.
Once that is completed, Sportexe has assigned two installation crews to speed up the completion of the field.
"They're going to flex their hours and try to get it done as quickly as possible," Swisher said. "We're working hard toward that last home game, given no other delays.
"I feel extremely bad for the seniors, having to play most of their final year on the road," Swisher said. "But they are road warriors. They have risen to the challenge and are having a great season.
"We are so appreciative of the boosters, the parents and the fans coming out on the road with the team. Their flexibility and support during this time has been incredible."
The all-weather track will be installed after the football season is over if the weather allows.
"The track will be dependent on the weather at this point," Swisher said. "This has been to a lot of people's frustration.
"We just want to make sure the project gets done right. We're talking long term, this is something that will benefit a lot of people for a long time, so it is important to get it right now."
In the meantime, Douglas will play this weekend's "home" game against Carson at Manogue Saturday at noon and next week's "home" game against Damonte Ranch at Galena Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
The school is still looking for a site for the Oct. 6 South Tahoe game.
"Manogue was extremely generous with us," Swisher said. "They basically donated their facility to us for two Saturdays. (Manogue athletic director) Joe Sellers has gone above and beyond to help us out."
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
