JSU trainer gives his blessing to new turf

JSU trainer gives his blessing to new turf

By Al Muskewitz
Star Sports Writer
08-01-2005


JACKSONVILLE — Jim Skidmore has never been a big fan of artificial turf. As an old-school athletic trainer, he has seen too many times the careers of promising athletes cut short by playing on the stuff. And it’s just not, well, natural.

But this new artificial turf Jacksonville State has put in Paul Snow Stadium has him coming around.

It’s not your father’s Astroturf. Actually, it isn’t Astroturf at all, but for the generation that grew up with the innovation of fake grass, that’s the way it’s known.

But the ProGrass surface JSU has installed isn’t anything like it. Far from it.

And Skidmore, the Gamecocks’ Hall of Fame trainer, likes it.

"When I heard they were putting this in, I was pleased with it," Skidmore said. "If they put the old type turf in, I’d have raised a hundred-thousand dollars worth of hell at that. It’s nothing like this. We’ve played on this four or five times and hadn’t had any problems with it.

"Our kids played full speed on it. When we played at (Tennessee) Tech and when we played at Murray, it appeared to me, our kids were a little tentative playing on (those surfaces). It just so happens, the two games we’ve lost on the road the last two years in the league were at those two places. It’s hard, no cushion.

"This is much softer. It doesn’t have that stick. It’s more like natural grass. It doesn’t have that grab, that bite. It doesn’t bite your shoes. There’s some cushion to it. Our players are going to play more wide open on this than they do on that other stuff. It’s not good when players don’t play full speed. You’re more likely to get hurt when you’re not playing full-speed than when you are."

Most of the original artificial surfaces were basically green carpets laid over a concrete base. JSU’s new turf, and many of its contemporary products, is set on a base of sand and rubber pellets. Skidmore, who’ll be inducted into the JSU Athletic Hall of Fame for 30-plus years of service on Oct. 14, hasn’t found any hard numbers to support the claim for reducing injuries, but anecdotal evidence suggests it. Players say it looks, feels and plays as close to a real grass field without being the real thing.

"It’s player-friendly. It’s got some forgiving qualities," JSU head coach Jack Crowe said. "There are inconsistencies on a good grass field … This is player-friendly and it’s obviously performance-friendly. It’s dry and every day you get the same field for what you’re doing."

The old-style turfs have long been blamed on knee injuries, ankle sprains and rug burns, and Skidmore can recall the share he’s treated. He remembers JSU’s first game ever in the Southland Conference, the Gamecocks had six sprained ankles at Sam Houston before halftime. They lost their starting defensive end in pre-game warm-ups.

Even the teams that play on it aren’t immune. Murray’s quarterback re-injured his bad knee on the Racers’ Astroturf after they beat JSU in overtime in 2003.

"I’m not saying we’re not going to have any (injuries) — I may be just raising the devil here — but I don’t feel like we are," Skidmore said. "If I did, I’d never have supported this turf. I think it’s great. I think it looks great. I think it’s going to give us some advantage."

While the incidents of joint and bone injuries may be avoided with this new synthetic turf, one thing can’t be avoided — the heat.

There were times during the installation process, it got so hot during the day, the installers had to work at night. Even as he looked out from the comfort of his air-conditioned office, Skidmore could see the heat radiating off the turf on the horseshoe end of the stadium.

"It’s not so much the heat on the surface — I know they always show pictures of people laying down thermometers in the end zone — you worry about it 3-4 feet above the surface," he said. "That’s where the body core is. It’s hotter there."

Skidmore had always been concerned about heat-related illness when the Gamecocks practiced on natural grass behind Salls Hall in August. Every year before camp begins he does a clinic with the coaches, not so they can diagnose heat-related illnesses, but so they can recognize its onset.

He already has written a protocol for football teams, bands and anyone else who may have cause to use the stadium.

"The hotter it is, the more vigilant they’re going to have to be," he said. "I can’t be out here everywhere. If one of our players appears in distress, get them out of the drill. You have to ask, would you rather (a player) miss 10 or 15 minutes today or three, four, five days of practice?"

Crowe has adjusted the Gamecocks’ camp schedule to work around the heat. They "probably" won’t get on the new turf for the first time until the first morning of two-a-days, a delay due more to the equipment being down on the grass fields than any trepidation toward the new surface.

Their weekday scrimmages will be at 9 a.m., with the weekend scrimmages at 6 p.m. The first three home games this season are all twilight kickoffs.

"When (offensive coordinator) Ronnie (Letson) was at Ole Miss they put this in and it was a general complaint to the heat of it if they were on it twice a day," Crowe said. "We’re going to have our antenna out and make assessments as we go. We don’t want to put ourselves at risk because of the heat factor."

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