SHADYSIDE — What started as a vision and dream officially becomes a reality this Friday.

Shortly after poor field conditions forced Shadyside to move the 2018 home playoff game against Frankfort Adena to St. Clairsville’s Red Devil Stadium, Superintendent John Haswell — disappointed in the decision — happened to strike up a conversation with Tony Francis, who had a son who was a freshman on the team.

“Obviously, losing that home playoff game was a killer,” Haswell recalled.

The two discussed Haswell’s and the board of education’s focus plan of a new K-12 school for the district. From there, it dovetailed into the prospects of upgrading Fleming Field. From there, the plans took off quickly. Through the Shadyside Boosters, a ‘turf committee’ formed, fundraising began and plans were drawn.

“I pointed out that when St. Clairsville got its turf, they formed a group to raise the funds and Tony said, ‘I’ll do it,'” Haswell said. “That’s how the whole thing began.”

After countless meetings, trips around the area to survey other fields and the collection of donations, the project came to fruition in June when crews began the project, which actually wrapped up late last month almost two weeks ahead of schedule.

Though the high school and junior high teams have used the field to practice on since the crews from AstroTurf handed the field over to Shadyside officials, the Tigers will formally christen the turf Friday night when Magnolia visits.

“We purposely waited on the varsity team to be the first ones to step on this field for a game,” Haswell said. “I asked (John Triveri) to hold off on having any games (junior high or junior varsity) on this field until we got a varsity game on it first.”

The field includes the traditional Shadyside ‘S’ with the Tiger crawling through the middle at the 50 yard line. The sidelines — in the team area — feature Bengal print. The end zones are orange.

“Whether you’re an orange and blank fan or not, when you look at this field, the contrast, the logo and the entire thing, it’s just absolutely gorgeous,” Haswell said. “I come up here and stare at this place in the evenings at times and it’s already being used by the community.”

Shadyside welcomes the community to use the field. According to Haswell, some youth flag football will be held on the field this fall, baseball and softball will use it next spring and even students at Leona Ave. Middle School are using the field for physical education classes.

“It was sold as a community project and complex and it is,” Haswell said. “It was a community effort and I really can’t believe we’re sitting here and it’s done.”

Though the project finished ahead of schedule, there was a hiccup along the way that cost an extra $78,000.

“We had an issue with soil stabilization,” Haswell admitted. “The soil here is clay and when they took off the topsoil, it left grooves, which you can’t have (with turf). We had to get a company called Chem-Base come in and pour Portland Cement on this whole thing to make (the field) as hard as a rock.”

Spearheading the project once he received the green light from the school district, Francis first approached the Shadyside Boosters Club.

“There was a lot of work involved in the nine or 10 months leading up to June,” Francis said. “I approached Bud (Davis), Frank (Cline) and some of the other guys who have been around a long time and said, ‘let’s turf a football field,’ the boosters club, which has served the youth of this community since 1934, thought it would be easier if we simplified into a turf committee, so we didn’t have 20 or 25 members with that many different opinions.”

Haswell lauded the work of Francis and Ohio West Virginia Excavating, which did much of the preparation work in terms of removing the grass field.

“Without the Hendershot and Lewis families and what Tony did in terms of leading the group, but he also spoke with his wallet,” Haswell said. “Tony deserves a lot of credit.”

Along with Haswell and Francis, the turf committee included: Doug Campbll, Jeff Campbell, Dennis Palicka, Brian Hendershot, John Triveri, Shane Florence and head football coach Mark Holenka.

Matt Merryman and Davis oversaw the project from the boosters side of the project as treasurer and president, respectively. Frank Cline and Jonathan O’Grady are the trustees.

Fundraising is still ongoing for the project, according to Davis. The total cost of the project was more than $800,000. The school pledged $228,000, which Francis called “a jumpstart to the process.”

“We were able to get (the project) done in 10 months,” Francis said. “For a small community, with a lot of effort, you end up with a million dollar facility.”

Davis indicated the project in terms of the turf and it’s installation are paid for, but more money is needed. Included is the aforementioned $78,000 that the school board picked up in the meantime.

“We need to pay for some of the prep work that went into this,” Davis said. “We’re doing commemorative stones that we mailed out to the alumni. We’ve done quite well with some big fish, but we’ve only heard back from less than two percent of the alumni.”

Merryman said, “between the boosters and the school district, $504,000 has been raised, but we have another $296,000 to go.”

The Shadyside Boosters will be holding an open house at Fleming Field on Sept. 20 and fans are welcome to come and get an up-close-and-personal look at the turf.