New turf installations at two Rock Hill area football stadiums this summer

The District 3 Stadium and District 3 Stadium South have new turf fields.

The turf was installed by French company FieldTurf, the same company that installed the turf for Bank of America Stadium and the Carolina Panthers practice facility.

District Athletic Director Jimmy Duncan said the change was made with student-athlete safety foremost in everyone’s mind.

“Towards the end of the school year, we put together a proposal for getting a turf field for the district stadiums -- District Three and District Three South,” Duncan said recently. “Safety for student-athletes was a priority. We have one of the safest fields that you could possibly get for our student-athletes. It is top of the line.”

The turf at District Three Stadium, home to Northwestern and Rock Hill high schools, is fully installed, while the installation at District Three Stadium South is “more than halfway through,” Duncan said, and should be finished before the start of football season.

The new turf already has had two high-profile fans.

“They’ve done a great job,” former Northwestern and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph who praticed on the field this summer. “We were here yesterday and felt 100 times better than it did in the last 15 to 20 years. A lot of good memories on the old turf, but I think the players are really going to enjoy this. It’s definitely an NFL-style turf. I think somebody said that the Panthers have a similar make, so it’ll be good for the fall.”

Rudolph trained at District Three Stadium with two fellow former Northwestern stars in Atlanta Falcons’ Cordarrelle Patterson and Washington Nationals draftee Dupree Hart, along with former coach Terrance Biddix.

“Honestly, it’s crazy because growing up, I was on grass,” Patterson said. “Now, they got some turf, but they just replaced it. A couple of months ago, we were on it, and it was terrible. It was time (to change the fields). Whoever did this turf, they did an awesone job.”