Fantastic Field

Jesuit High School’s Alumni Field at Corral Memorial Stadium has long been one of the Tampa Bay area’s elite athletic facilities, and now it’s even better.

Early this summer, the artificial turf was replaced with a state-of-the-art surface: ProGrass Xtreme Turf BDX52.

The Jesuit football team began fall practice on it this week, to rave reviews. And the field already has paid dividends for offsetting the soaking wet weather – it has drained superbly, allowing the team to practice on ideal field conditions Monday (Aug. 3) despite the deluge of rain.

“It’s the best field I’ve ever been on, bar none,” Jesuit JV football head coach Matt Kaiser said. “The feel is amazing, it’s noticeably cooler than other turf fields, and I don’t know of any schools that have end zones painted like this. It looks awesome.”

The ProGrass Xtreme Turf BDX52 is a Monofilament and Slit Film fibers hybrid with sand/rubber infil. On Alumni Field, a giant Tiger head logo occupies midfield. The north end zone says “JESUIT" in white lettering on blue turf, the south end zone says “TIGERS” in the same white-on-blue.

New to the facility is turf in the north and south D-ring areas – the sections between the curves of the track surface and the end zones. Now, the entire surface area inside the track is covered with the ProGrass Xtreme Turf BDX52 (except for the pole vault and high jump areas). Previously, the D-rings were grass.

The football team actually practiced on the new surface once in the spring. The resurfacing project started at the beginning of May and was completed early, allowing the Tigers to use it on May 28, the day before they defeated Gibbs 55-34 in the spring game in St. Petersburg.

In addition to football (which has Varsity, JV, and Freshman teams - all three teams used the facility for the first time this fall on Tuesday), the soccer (Varsity, JV) and lacrosse (Varsity, JV) programs also use Alumni Field, as do Jesuit's summer camps, P.E. classes, and others. Football, soccer, and lacrosse all captured District championships on Alumni Field at Corral Memorial Stadium last season.

Also, Jesuit High School typically hosts one of the college teams participating in the Outback Bowl each year. Last season, Auburn utilized the facility during Outback Bowl preparations, and two seasons ago it was Iowa.

View a photo slideshow from the first day of fall practice on Aug. 3 below: