GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — The football field at Garfield Heights High School has been unable to be played on, condemned for the condition and is in need of some TLC. On Friday, that's exactly what it got with the Cleveland Browns partnering with the city and school to begin a project to install a brand new ForeverLawn synthetic turf field.
City leaders, school staff and students have all known for some time that the football field needed help.
"In 1988, we played on this same field, with the same bleachers," said Garfield Heights mayor Matt Burke.
As part of the Browns' efforts to positively impact education and youth and high school football across Northeast Ohio, the Garfield Heights field was selected for the latest in the organization's field surface projects.
The school, city and Browns organization gathered Friday to celebrate a groundbreaking on the project that will see the field transformed with a new high-performance synthetic surface, providing a turf field that gives the school stability with less maintenance to ensure it lasts for years to come.
Among those in attendance were Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and executive vice president JW Johnson. They were joined by the Garfield Heights mayor and school officials, who all spoke to a group of students there to cheer on their new football field.
"What I love about today—today's a great example of teamwork," Stefanski said to the crowd. "It takes the Cleveland Browns, it takes the city, it takes the school, it takes the students, and together as we work as a team putting in a beautiful field."
Johnson was thrilled to take part in the latest field project, seeing for himself how badly Garfield Heights needed the partnership.
"As you can see back here it looks like the field needs some work so we’re excited to get this thing going for the students and the athletes and the community," he said. "Its just a true pleasure and we’re happy to do it and we’ll continue to do it as long as we’re here."
With their hard hats and shovels, Stefanski, Johnson and several other city leaders and school officials broke ground outside of the football field.
A field that means the world to the school and that they can't wait to see revamped.
"It’s more than just a field. This is the beginning to a journey of commitment and community, unity," said Garfield Heights City Schools supervisor of pupil services Gina Wilson. "When we come back and we’re doing this ribbon cutting and we want to expose what has happened in the past couple months—I’m just very excited, I don’t have words for it. I’m just very excited."
The Garfield Heights High School football field project is expected to be completed this fall.
