Debut of blue: Oxford finally joins the fray with new blue turf

OXFORD — Bud Rowley admits that he has had several sleepless nights in the past year. Far too many to count.

“You have no idea, boss,” snarled the veteran varsity football coach at Oxford (Mich.) High School just moments after Monday’s practice kicked off. “It’s been a heckuva long year.”

Rowley, who has coached some 35 non-consecutive years at Oxford, located in the northern region of Detroit’s suburban plateau, is in a unique position this season with the Wildcats.

After 28 straight winning seasons, his beloved Wildcats slipped into purgatory last autumn, finishing a dismal 3-6, including 2-6 in their new home, the Oakland Activities Association White Division.

“That’s not acceptable,” admitted Rowley. “But it’s the head guy’s fault. I take the blame for that. I didn’t do my job. The (assistant) coaches and I talked about all of that. Like I said, there’s been a lot of sleepless nights. You have no idea.”

Oxford and Bud Rowley, along with over a dozen assistant coaches and volunteers, had another sleepless night this Aug.8 — and for a very good reason.

It was the dawn of a new day, a dawn of a new high school football season at Oxford. Monday marked the first day that member schools of the Michigan High School Athletic Association could begin football practices across the state. All other fall sports commence Wednesday.

At 12:01 a.m., Oxford officially kicked off its 2011 campaign in grand fashion…under the lights, the way prep football is meant to be played.

This practice, however, was a little different in more ways than one.

It was the first time in school history that Oxford’s varsity football athletes, some 45 strong, hit the battle field in the wee hours of morning. Some 400 members of the community — parents, cheerleaders, administration, townspeople, business owners and select members of the press — showed up, many sporting spirit wear.

The concession stand was open for business and the boosters club was selling souvenirs.

There was quite a buzz.

At 11:50 p.m. Sunday night, Rowley, his staff, and all of his players ran out onto the field and scurried around the complex like children on an Easter egg hunt. They were getting a feel of their new home.

Just a moment after the strike of midnight, it was back to business for the Wildcats. They have waited long enough, not just to make amends for last season’s rare hiccup, but for its grand facility.

Why wait a moment longer to use it?

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Crowds are not uncommon at Oxford, much like in thousands of towns across the nation. Prep football, prep sports in general, are huge and growing from coast to coast. They are about to become a little more popular at Oxford, which has around 1,500 students in grades 9-12 and is one of the few school districts in the Detroit area still growing in the suffering, lagging economy of Michigan.

Still, this practice was a little different — different from any in Oxford’s history, which includes three state finals appearances in school history and one state championship.

This practice, which went from midnight to 5:30 a.m., was played on the school’s brand new turf field. And while turf is common at large schools across Michigan, as some 100-plus schools now have some rendition of turf fields in their athletics stadiums, this turf is blue…navy blue to be exact.

It’s odd.

It’s different.

It’s brand new.

And it’s original.

“It’s awesome,” said senior-to-be Prescott Line, a 6-foot, 220-pound running back-linebacker who recently gave an oral commitment to Division I Southern Methodist University. “We’ve waited for this for a long time.”

This is the first navy blue turf field at a high school across the country. It’s not found in Texas or in Georgia, where prep football is king. It’s found in Oxford, in the high school’s bowl-shaped stadium nestled into a valley on a site which used to be the gravel capital of the world.

Some 40 years ago, Oxford, which now boasts a Class A high school, was full of gravel trains as far as the eye could see, as pits, holes and conveyer belts scattered the horizon for miles. That is where the new high school building, only a decade old, stands, next door to a Meijer and golf course and a large subdivision that spans both sides of M-24.

Now, it’s serious football country with all of the modern pluses.

And it’s all Oxford’s…finally.

“We’ve waited a long time for this,” smiled Rowley, who saved his legendary yellow pants deemed only for game nights, unwilling to break them out for this rare, special occasion. “It’s about time.”

Colin Goetz, a 6-foot-7 senior lineman headed for Division I Central Michigan University, almost felt like it was too good to be true.

“It’s one thing being able to look at it or talk about, but it’s different being able to go out and actually practice on it,” said Goetz, also a state-ranked shot putter. “Blue turf! People have been talking about it for a long time.”

FROM SMALLTIME TO BIG TIME

For decades, Oxford football was played in the village on a small field located next to what is now Daniel Axford Elementary School. It moved to a newer stadium in the 1960s off Pontiac Street only two blocks to the west, just north of Oxford Elementary.

The high school once stood at this location until it moved to a larger building off Lakeville Road in 1982, two miles east of town. The football teams remained at the Pontiac Street site through the 2002 season.

As teams continued to drive across the district to Pontiac Street facility for games, practices were held at scattered locations in the school district. The old facility, where the soccer and lacrosse teams still use for some games and practices, will remain as a backup site. Soccer and lacrosse, a sport only a couple of years old in Oxford, will play their varsity contests on the new blue turf as well.

“Our high school contests will mainly be played on the turf,” said Oxford Director of Athletics Mike Watson. “It’s funny our middle school teams are mad because they will play their games at the middle school. They have their own little stadium now.”

ENROLLMENT SPIKE

Enrollment has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s at Oxford, shooting up from 800 students to the 1,500 barrier and climbing. The school upgraded to Class A, the largest classification in the MHSAA ranks, in 1999-2000.

The current high school site was a middle school for three years before the high school student body moved to the Ray Road location for the 2003-04 school year, due to steady enrollment increases.

Three high school buildings in under 30 years for Oxford, but facilities lagging the competition throughout Oakland County…until now.

Jim Reis, Chairperson for the Oxford Turf Committee, said the turf and the debut event was a long time coming and something that the entire community can cherish.

“We had some people with a vision and now it’s finally here,” he said. “They first started talking about this in (the spring of 2010) and a lot of work has gone into it. I know everyone will be pleased. We finally have turf like everyone else.”

JOINING THE FRAY

It was only 12 years ago when private school Birmingham Detroit Country Day had a turf field installed, becoming the first school in affluent Oakland County and one of the first in the Midwest to do so. Since then, turf has been growing at schools in pockets around the state and country. The quality of turf fields has improved immensely.

Most of the Class A and Class B schools in Oakland County now have turf, with the public school holdouts being Hazel Park, Holly, Madison Heights Madison and Clawson, plus large private schools Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Birmingham Marian. All of the other schools in Oakland County that do not have turf are Class C and Class D schools.

Auburn Hills Avondale is in the process of having a new athletics stadium and two new turf fields installed, one main game field and one practice turf field, and will debut the stadium in late September. Now in the 26-member Oakland Activities Association, only Hazel Park is without turf. Oxford, too, has finally joined the fray.

“When I came down here the first time after it was installed, I was like, ‘this is stunning,’” offered Oxford Schools Superintendent Bill Skilling. “It’s a beautiful field. I think it’s going to become kind of a landmark in Oxford.

“Today, I don’t think you can afford not to have turf,” added Skilling. “It might be expensive to install, but your cost of ownership goes down to nil compared to maintaining a grass field. You think about the thunderstorm that came though here a couple of hours ago. I’m guessing we had a couple of inches of rain in a couple of hours time. There is no way we could have had a football practice on natural turf after a rain like that. This is going to allow us to be able to do things like this, just like they do in other school districts (in the area).”

Oxford has slowly upgraded its facilities in the past decade. Part of the latest project includes new tennis courts on the north side of campus. Tennis is one of the few sports that Oxford does not offer but will in the future.

There will also be some new practice fields for football. The track is being resurfaced this week, with dual long jump and pole vault pits part of the package deal.

Oxford has hopes of showcasing its new facilities and host regional and county track meets in the near future and to host state tournament games for football, soccer and lacrosse played on the turf, much like their neighbors in communities like Lake Orion, Rochester and Clarkston have done for quite some time now.

“We have something that matches a lot of other schools in the area,” smiled Watson.

BIG GREEN MACHINE TO CLASH WITH BIG BLUE

Oxford will entertain neighboring Lake Orion in the first official football game played on the new blue turf. That game will take place the evening of Aug. 26, the first weekend of prep football games in Michigan.

Oxford and Lake Orion renewed their rivalry last August after a 27-year hiatus. Even though the two school districts sit side-by-side along the M-24 corridor, with less than 10 miles separating the two high school buildings, football games were shelved after the 1983 season due to vandalism and other troubling events.

The rivalry game was brought back in 2010 and it also brought in much anticipation and fanfare last year. The game was held at Lake Orion and eventually brought in around 10,000 fans.

With the game moving to Oxford this year to be played on the new blue turf, administration is expecting a similar or perhaps even a larger crowd.

Remind you, this is Lake Orion coming to town.

Lake Orion is good, one of the better programs in the state. In the past three years, that school has played in two state finals games at Ford Field in Detroit, home of the Detroit Lions. The Dragons were the 2008 Division 1 state runner-up and last year captured their first football state championship in school history.

The Dragons are a big draw. So why not the neighbors on opening night, under the lights, in Oxford…on the new blue turf field the community has waited for such a long time? A team like Lake Orion is worthy to be part of a big celebration.

ON THE MEND

Oxford wrapped up last season with two convincing wins, routing both Royal Oak (35-0) and Oak Park (51-28), showing signs of life and setting the stage for this year’s revival.

Still, Rowley lamented on last year and the fact his Wildcats did not finish above .500 and way out of the league title chase. The state playoffs weren’t even on the discussion board last season.

“That’s a long gol-darn winter,” reminded Rowley, whose team was schlacked by Lake Orion, 45-6, in last season’s opener, which caused a downward spiral for the Wildcats. “We’re going to be better. When your 3-6, it’s a long winter — long, long winter.”

And about those sleepless nights?

“When you don’t reach your expectations and you’re goal is always the playoffs, it makes you work harder,” continued Rowley, who guaranteed the yellow pants will come out of the closet for the season opener. “We have a great facility now. No excuses.”

A great facility indeed … And it’s about time.

(Daniel Stickradt is Senior Editor and Publisher of www.northoaklandsports.com / AdaVan Media Group and owner of the Stickradt Media Group public relations services. He can be reached at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com. Follow NOS on multiple social media outlets, including Twitter @LocalSportsFans.)

TURF FIELDS IN OAKLAND COUNTY

Below is a look at what schools in Oakland County, Michigan, have turf fields and which schools do not. Oxford and Auburn Hills Avondale are the schools who have added turf to their respective athletics complexes for the 2011-12 school year.

TURF STADIUMS IN OAKLAND COUNTY (school size in parenthesis) — Auburn Hills Avondale (A)*, Berkley (A), Birmingham Brother Rice (A), Birmingham Groves (A), Birmingham Seaholm (A), Bloomfield Hills Andover (A), Bloomfield Hills Lahser (A), Novi (A), Novi Detroit Catholic Central (A), Farmington (A), Farmington Harrison (A), Farmington Hills Mercy (A), Madison Heights Lamphere (B), North Farmington (A), Lake Orion (A), Milford (A), Oak Park (A), Ortonville Brandon (A), Oxford (A)*, Pontiac (Wisner Stadium) (A), Rochester (A), Rochester Adams (A), Rochester Stoney Creek (A), Royal Oak (A), Southfield (A), Southfield Lathrup (A), South Lyon (A), South Lyon East (A), Troy (A), Troy Athens (A), Walled Lake Central (A), Walled Lake Northern (A), Walled Lake Western (A), Waterford Kettering (A), Waterford Mott (A), West Bloomfield (A), White Lake Lakeland (A).

* Denotes new turf being installed.

OAKLAND COUNTY SCHOOLS WITHOUT TURF (mostly small schools; school size in parenthesis) — Auburn Hills Oakland Christian (C), Auburn Hills Christian Academy (D), Birmingham Marian (A), Birmingham Roeper (D), Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart (D), Clarkston Springfield Christian (D), Clarkston Everest Collegiate (D), Ferndale University Academy (C), Ferndale Academy of Oak Park North (B), Hazel Park (A), Holly (D), Lake Orion Baptist (D), Madison Heights Bishop Foley (C), Milford West Highland Christian (D), Novi Franklin Road Christian (D), Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (B), Pontiac Academy of Excellence (C), Rochester Hills Christian (D), Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest (C), Royal Oak Shrine Catholic (D), Southfield Christian (C), Southfield Bradford Academy (C), Southfield Manoogian (D), Troy Bethany Christian (D), Troy Christian Leadership Academy (D), Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes (D), West Bloomfield Jewish Academy (D), Wixom Christian (D).

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