LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ smallest football-playing school has made a big statement.
Installation of a Geo-Green playing surface earlier this month at Hornet Stadium means Mineral Springs is the state’s first Class 2A school with artificial turf.
Mineral Springs Coach Vince Perrin said his players began practicing on the new surface Monday.
“You can’t run them off the turf,” Perrin said. “After practice, they stay around and run routes and catch balls. They love it. They absolutely love it.”
Mineral Springs, about 110 miles southwest of Little Rock, is the smallest school in the state that plays football, based on enrollment figures the Arkansas Activities Association uses to classify schools for the 2010-2012 cycle.
Mineral Springs has just 99 students in grades 9-11.
“We want the finest facilities in 2A, in this part of the state,” Perrin said.
“That’s something the community can take pride in; something nobody else around here has. I think the closest field you have to go to get to turf is Texarkana.With this field, it puts a lot of pride in the community and says, ‘Hey, this school is here to stay.’ ”
Ground was broken on the project in early July, Perrin said, adding the cost of the field is a little less than $600,000.
It is being covered entirely by district funds, Perrin said.
Perrin praised Mineral Springs’ administration, including Superintendent Max Adcock, for its ambitious stance toward improving the school’s football facilities.
“We feel like it’s helped pick up kids into the district,” Perrin said. “We like to call it a good recruiter for us.”
Perrin said Mineral Springs investigated other in-state schools with artificial playing surfaces and chose the GeoGreen replicated grass surface from GeoSurfaces - a Baton Rouge-based company that also installed new fields in recent months at Central Arkansas and Henderson State and last year at Arkansas State.
Sports, Pages 29 on 08/14/2011