Almost ready for some football

Crews were meticulously working on the new synthetic turf inside

LeBard Stadium Tuesday, four days from deadline.

The host Orange Coast College and Saddleback football teams are

scheduled to inaugurate the renovated field when the squads clash at

5 p.m. Saturday, nearly four months since crews began the remodeling.

Workers and machines dotted the synthetic surface Tuesday, which

contains an outline of the field along with yard lines and numbers.

The next steps will be adding a logo at midfield and covering the

field with a rubber-sand mixture, OCC sports information director

Eric Montgomery said.

The Pirates played their first home game at Newport Harbor High

Sept. 4 due to the construction inside LeBard Stadium, among several

renovations Coast has and will undertake with the bond money gained

from Measure C in 2002.

The new turf, which weighs about 10 pounds per square foot, is

called FieldTurf and is supposed to provide a softer cushion for a

players’ fall and eliminate common injuries associated with other

synthetic surfaces such as rug burns and turf toe.

The surface has drawn mostly positive reviews from players of

Coast’s men’s and women’s soccer teams, which have each played games

on the synthetic surface on the campus’ soccer field.