With a 2-0 record and Eastside Catholic — the Class 3A state runner-up in 2013 — coming to town for Arlington’s first home football game of the season tonight, it’s understandable that the players, coaches and community are excited.
Throw in a new artificial playing surface to replace the grass field at John C. Larson stadium and Arlington head football coach Greg Dailer sounds downright giddy.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Dailer said. “It felt like it was sort of a pipe dream to get there. We’ve been thinking about it for a long time. It’s real exciting. It was most exciting to be able to practice on it, but we’re real excited about finally getting to play a game on it.
“It’s nice for the community to see. We’re excited to unveil it to the community and we’re real excited to be able to play on it. We’re proud of it.”
While many Wesco schools played on turf surfaces for years, Arlington was one of the last to convert. The Eagles’ new field leaves Stanwood as the only Wesco team that still plays on grass.
Arlington is able to practice on its new surface, which is something new for the Eagles. Before the turf was installed, the Eagles had to practice on the baseball field with no hash marks or yardage lines.
“I’ve always felt that it’s been a little bit of a disadvantage to us in many ways to not have turf,” Dailer said. “We’re never the biggest team and we do a lot of spread (offense) stuff. Most teams we play are on turf and we don’t get to practice on it, so it’s been a long time coming and our district really stepped up and made it happen.”
Even though the Eagles didn’t practice on their grass field, that didn’t stop the field from deteriorating throughout the season. By the final weeks of the season, the surface was difficult for them and their opponents to play on.
“We used to nickname our old field the swamp because at the end of every season it was a quagmire,” Dailer said. “It was kind of an advantage sometimes because teams that never practice or play in any mud would kind of tip-toe around in it, but if push came to shove and we weren’t more physical than the other team and couldn’t really spread it out, there’s not a whole lot you can do in the mud that we had. (The new field) is really going to open up the game. Even when it’s wet, you can keep the ball pretty dry.”
In addition to school funds, Arlington has the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks and the NFL to thank for its new surface. Arlington High School was awarded a grant of $200,000 for the new field through the Seahawks and the NFL’s Grassroots Program. The grant is part of $2.5 million in field-refurbishment awards allocated this year.
Representatives from the Seahawks, as well as the Sea Gals and Blue Thunder will be on-hand for tonight’s game and present the school with a check at halftime. An additional $25,000 will be donated by ESPN for other upgrades to the field.
Eastside Catholic is the Eagles’ final non-conference game of the year before opening their league schedule next Friday against Marysville Getchell.
“Eastside Catholic has obviously got a great tradition going the last few years,” Dailer said. “They’ve got a good football tradition going, but we’re real excited for the opportunity to play them. It will be a great barometer of where we’re at as a program right now and a great test for us.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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