Red Turf Coming to St. Mary's Football Field

Detroit Catholic Central, Detroit Cass Tech, and Weston St. Marcellus (Ontario) football teams, take note — at next fall's road trip to , you'll be seeing red. Literally.

Headmaster Jim Glowacki on Monday confirmed that what was a focus of fundraising since last September is set to become a reality beginning with a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday afternoon. By week three of next fall's football season, Orchard Lake St. Mary's will have a red turf installed, he said.

"We take football very seriously and we’ve had incredible success in our history. As much as anything, it’s a statement of where we hope to be as long as St. Mary’s is around," Glowacki said, explaining that the red field represents the school's colors.

It's part of a $600,000 project, Glowacki said, and a deposit of $100,000 was recently put down after approval at a meeting of the St. Mary's Board of Regents last week. There will also be new bleachers installed at Msgr. Milewski Field, Glowacki added, one of the few football-playing surfaces in the country with natural grass.

According to Glowacki, the red turf will make St. Mary's one of only three campuses nationwide with such a football-playing surface. Eastern Washington University and New Braunfels Canyon High School in Texas are the others.

Glowacki added that although a complete schedule is not official, it is known that Detroit Catholic Central, Cass Tech, and Weston St. Marcellus (Ontario) will play at St. Mary's next season, with St. Marcellus kicking off the home schedule in week three.