Tulare, CA – Bob Mathias Stadium serves as the home to outdoor athletic competition for three primary high schools in the Tulare Joint Union High School District (TJUHSD). The venue is also the home of a cutting edge synthetic turf field and a brand new track overlay thanks to a turnkey design-build project from AstroTurf®.
Stadium renovations began in July, when certified AstroTurf installer Valley Precision Grading (VPG) began digging up the old grass field and reworking the site. Installation of the new artificial turf field was completed on August 9th. VPG also installed the new Rekortan® track, which features embedded rubber for a softer underfoot feel. The track was finished on August 23rd. The Rekortan track product is made by APT, a sister company of AstroTurf under the SportGroup umbrella.
This turnkey stadium renovation, completed before kickoff of the first football game, was made possible with a contract through National IPA. National IPA is the nation’s leading cooperative purchasing organization. They offer a portfolio of competitively solicited contracts that have been awarded based on industry best practices and maximum value. It saves public institutions like TJUHSD time and money by eliminating the administrative costs and hassles of running competitive solicitations on their own.
“This whole process couldn’t have been easier for us, it was essentially one-stop-shopping,” said Chris Stevens, district director of facilities. “We avoided the time-consuming and budget-worrying pitfalls of public bids, separate contracts, multiple subcontractors and the like. What we got instead was an amazing new track and field for Bob Mathias Stadium, on budget, completed quickly and efficiently. We’re thrilled with the results.”
TJUHSD’s new football turf is AstroTurf’s Golden Series DT. This state-of-the-art synthetic turf system combines high density slit film fibers for durability with AstroTurf’s patented RootZone sub-layer, which bolsters the artificial grass for improved structural integrity. The unique characteristic of the Golden Series DT is the ZeoFill infill that mitigates the use of traditional crumb rubber. ZeoFill is made from an organic mineral called zeolite that is also used in health food supplements and water filtration systems. The major benefit of ZeoFill is the tremendous reduction in surface temperature generated by its use – as much as 30°F cooler than conventional infill. The athletic turf at Bob Mathias Stadium also received a Brock powerbase pad for maximum shock attenuation.
The Golden Series DT athletic turf is part of AstroTurf’s larger Green Series of synthetic turf systems that utilize a sophisticated natural turf approach with dense fiber to mitigate the use of traditional crumb rubber infill. Tulare joins Exeter, Central, and Mendota high schools in central California as fellow Green Series installations that were procured through National IPA.
The stadium is named after Olympic decathlete and two-time gold medalist Bob Mathias, an alum of Tulare Union High School. The school boasts multiple Olympic gold medalists and several NFL players on its alumni roster.
Bob Mathias Stadium serves as the district’s athletic venue for football, soccer, and track and field. It has also hosted several community-supported events including the Special Olympics and Relay For Life. The stadium regularly sees 250,000 spectators pass through its turnstiles annually.
About AstroTurf®
For athletes and sport enthusiasts, AstroTurf® has redefined the way the game is played. The brand offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities continue to select AstroTurf-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority, and safety. To learn more, visit AstroTurf’s newly redesigned website at www.astroturf.com.
About Rekortan:
Designed for the current day athlete, the Rekortan track system is a diverse, world class series of polyurethane running tracks that are unmatched in quality and performance. The Rekortan debut in 1969 revolutionized the track world with quality and innovation, forever crowning our systems as “the fast tracks”. Four decades have passed and the Rekortan name continues a tradition of excellence, representing the most technologically advanced running surfaces in the world. As the flagship running track brand of the sports surfacing giant Sportgroup, Rekortan has helped the Sportgroup earn more Class 1 and Class 2 IAAF certifications than any competitor across the globe.