TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) - The field turf conversion is nearing completion at Gene Cox Stadium in Tallahassee, and it's thanks in part to a hardworking crew from AstroTurf, the company that's in charge of the project.
"It's hot!" laughed Travis McGill, the superintendent on the project. "It feels like over 100, and on the turf, it's usually 120 or so, it's pretty hot."
The crew works ten to twelve hours a day on the project, seven days a week. Piecing together a turf field isn't easy, but the long hours baking in the Florida sun are worth it in the end.
"When you get done, look back on it, stand in the grandstands look at the nice pretty field, that's the best part of it," said McGill.
Converting Gene Cox from out of date to coming of age started almost two months ago, and now, we're less than two weeks out from the finished product.
"We laid the pad down, and then we laid the turf down," said McGill, who's been laying turf fields for a decade. "Usually the green out process, which is all the turf down, is about a week, so we're right on par with it. We got hashes and numbers, and the soccer and we'll start be ready to put in the infill in. That takes two or three days, and then we'll be wrapped up."
Wrapped up for the AstroTurf crew, but for Leon County athletes, the fun is just about to begin.
"Everybody in the community is usually 100% behind it and grateful for it," said McGill. "Usually it's dirt in the middle, so they're used to playing in dirt and it being rock hard. Everybody is grateful is having a nice field."
A nice field that makes it worth it for everyone in the end.
