Fargo Shanley $3.5M artificial turf and track project nearing completion

May 16, 2023

FARGO — The installation of a new athletic turf and track at Fargo Shanley is nearing completion.

The $3.5 million, privately-funded undertaking broke ground in April and is expected to be finished by the Deacons’ first boys soccer home game at Sid Cichy Stadium on Aug. 19.

“I think it’s no question we’ll be here Aug. 19,” Shanley activities director Reggie Jackson said Friday. “We may even get to practice here before that.”

The project entails replacing the school’s original turf surface — installed in 2009 — while moving it roughly 35 feet east to accommodate the new track — something Shanley hasn't had before.

Other aspects of the project include new LED stadium lights, yellow NFL-spec’d goalposts, cementing and other minor facility improvements.

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Crews had hoped to break ground on April 3, but were delayed until later that month due to North Dakota’s late winter and early spring weather challenges.

Jackson said at the time that the expected completion date for the project was Aug. 1. Although that deadline has passed, he noted that things are moving along nicely as crews continued work on the turf Friday morning.

“With construction projects, there’s always going to be the elements,” Jackson said. “We had a pretty good summer. We really didn’t have much rain that stopped anything. We don’t get to practice on (the turf) a lot, but the fact we’re going to get to play opening days in both boys soccer and football, I’d say that’s successful.”

The boys soccer team will open its season hosting Bismarck Century. Six days later, the Deacons football team and defending North Dakota Class 11AA champions will welcome Bismarck to the new turf for their season opener.

Although the surface will be ready for game action in a couple of weeks, Shanley teams remain displaced as they gear up for their respective seasons. Jackson said the boys soccer team is currently practicing down the street at Fargo Davies while the football team is utilizing the field at West Fargo Horace.

“In other instances too, if we can’t find a place to practice, we have our grass fields we can practice on,” Jackson said.

Shanley was the first school in the Fargo-Moorhead area to install an artificial-turf surface back in 2009. FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of Montreal-based French company Tarkett, supplied the surface back then just as it is now.

Iowa-based Midwest FieldTurf is heading the installation of the surface, which will feature eye-popping Shanley red-colored end zones as opposed to the standard green end zones on the previous turf.

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FieldTurf states that the lifespan of its synthetic turf is typically 8-10 years. Shanley squeezed 14 years out of its original surface, and Jackson noted that with evolving technology in turf design, the school is hoping they can get two decades out of their new field as long as it’s properly maintained.

“For this, they’ve said probably 10-15 years now that it’s a little bit newer,” Jackson said. “So I would bet that we could probably get 20. One thing — because we did add the track — we won’t be able to play softball here because we won’t have a place to anchor backstops and things like that. Playing softball on the base areas really tore (the turf) up, so not playing (softball) I think will get us a little more lifespan too.”

With that in mind, Jackson didn’t rule out the potential for an on-campus softball field in the future.

“We don’t have a timeline for that,” Jackson said. “It is in our future plans category. It just kind of depends on which direction the school administration decides next.”

As the turf project nears completion, Jackson is excited for people to come out and see the finished product this upcoming school year.

“I think homecoming will be a lot of fun this year,” Jackson said. “That’s when we’re going to do the grand opening. We have our street fair that day and we’ll have a lot of people here for that. So that will be our grand opening of the field and everything.”

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