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RBURGER@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Reeds Spring may be a Class 3 football team, but they will soon play on NCAA Division I turf.

The school district agreed to buy synthetic turf previously used by the University of Cincinnati.

The Reeds Spring R-IV School District will pay approximately $450,000 for the turf and its installation at Carl Langley Field at Wolves Stadium. This turf originally cost $1.1 million.

Cincinnati installed the artificial field turf in 2013. The university is replacing it because the Bearcats will share the stadium with a professional soccer team, which requires different field markings.

"This turf will allow our athletic teams and band to practice and compete rain or shine," said Michael Mason, superintendent of Reeds Spring Schools. "This also cuts down on the district’s need to maintain other practice facilities. When our new middle school opens later this year, we won’t have to bus kids to a practice field."

The Reeds Spring Board of Education approved the agreement to buy and install turf at a Monday night meeting.

The district will pay for the turf with the use of a lease purchase over the next several years through an agreement with UBU Sports, Inc. The agreement includes an eight-year warranty, which according to Reeds Spring School Director of Communications Ben Fisher, is normal for new turf.

The move will cost the school district an estimated additional $20,000 per year in maintenance costs at the stadium.

Mason said the school district learned of the opportunity to purchase University of Cincinnati’s turf came from meeting David Baker, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Baker served as the keynote speaker at "Pack Night," a fundraiser for the Reeds Spring R-VI School Foundation, in 2015.

"This opportunity presented itself, and the school board and I agreed this was too good of an offer to pass up," Mason said.

According to a press release, the turf will be shipped from Ohio to the Stone County school in the coming weeks, and will be installed by the end of the school year.

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