Out for the summer
The Pepperell football field is being renovated.
For most of the season, Lynn Hunnicutt Field at Pepperell is home to Friday night football, areawide track meets, soccer matches and various practices. But to keep those events running smoothly, changes must be made during the offseason.
The field is currently filled with dirt and bulldozers, as a construction company works all summer fixing the drainage problem on the field. The construction began May 1, with nearly every spring sport finished.
The new field is expected to be completed in August,
in time for Pepperell’s first home game against Pickens County on September 1. It
is something Pepperell athletic director and football coach Rick Hurst is a
bit anxious about, but knows it must be done.
“This field is used so much between us and the middle school and all the track meets,” Hurst said. “It is going to be difficult sometimes, it is an inconvenience, but we can make the adjustments so the problems can be fixed.”
All these plans were set in motion back in 2016 when the school intended to renovate the track. But an engineer noticed that the drainage from the home locker rooms and weight room was running onto the track, causing standing water whenever it rained.
This led to an investigation on the drainage of the field which was deemed not up to par. Ultimately, the engineers ruled that they couldn’t fix the problems on the field without tearing it up completely.
The drainage problems are not something that shocks Hurst, who has known something irregular about the field since he took over in 2015.
“We had a sinkhole near our sideline that was about three or four feet long my first season,” Hurst said. “We called the county, they patched it up a little, and it seemed to be working until this season, but it begun opening up again during soccer season this year.”
Things only got more interesting when March rolled around, when strong winds took down a light post on the home side of the field. Pepperell is now replacing all four light poles for the start of next football season.
“I think that just kind of compounded everything,” Hurst said. “But we have plans in place to replace the lights and that should be fine too.”
The only team’s season that was disturbed due to the construction was the track team, which had its athletes who qualified for the state meet practice over at Darlington. The football team elected to not have spring practice long before construction began. Meanwhile, Hurst intends to lead his team in Summer workouts completely at the team’s practice fields, a slight change from last year.
The only worry he has left is the mounds of dirt sitting on Hunnicutt Field, hoping the work will be finished when all those big events roll around.
“It is frightening for me because we play on September 1,” Hurst said. “You know I look outside right now and wonder how we are going to make it. I have been assured that it is going to happen, but I am still a little anxious.”