Yearly changes to the high school landscape are nothing new and have become commonplace in recent years.
On the western side of Greenbrier County, the changes are both on the field, as well as off the field.
Outside of some new faces that will wear a Greenbrier West jersey this season, the Cavaliers will also have a new principal, a new head football coach and a new head volleyball coach.
The biggest change however, is not related to personnel.
After years of wearing teams down with its ground and pound style of football on natural grass, the Cavalier Express will make the move this season to artificial turf.
“Well, you know I am a Virginia Tech guy and we still play on grass in Blacksburg. Naturally, I have a soft spot for (natural grass),” Greenbrier West athletic director Jared Robertson said, laughing.
Ironically, the final game ever played on the natural surface at Greenbrier West was a 35-0 playoff win over South Harrison last November
While getting the win was nice, constant rain made the field a muddy mess and illustrated the main issue with a grass surface.
“After experiences like our playoff games in Charmco, you can see that trying to keep a grass field in great shape in western Greenbrier County is not the easiest of chores,” Robertson said. “We have been fortunate to have a lot of people over the years that would put a lot of time, effort and money into trying to keep our field in great shape. I think we have a really nice field, but I am not sure if our staff will miss all of the hours of mowing, fertilizing and painting. Now we can just walk out there, sweep the field occasionally and be done with it.”
Last year, if the Cavaliers would have had a home quarterfinal game, the field would have surely been unplayable and would have forced a move to another location. That is a scenario that has also played out over the years for West.
“Over the years we have moved several playoff games from our field to Greenbrier East,” Robertson said. “They have (a turf field and have) been super nice to help us out. No offense to them, but it is really nice to have games on your own field and your own stadium.”
If everything goes according to plan, the target date for the Cavaliers to be on the new surface will be the first week of August.
“The first week of (August) practice, we may have to be somewhere else,” Robertson said. “By the second week of practice, we will be on the field. We need some sunny days, otherwise pouring rain will make the athletic director sit there, look at the mud and cringe all day.”
“They had a great week the first week,” Robertson continued. “It was amazing the amount of dirt they hauled out of there. Hopefully we keep good weather and it is not a wet July like last summer and we can stay on track.”
Although Robertson is hoping for the best, he does have plans in place should the road get a little rocky.
“Our middle school (Western Greenbrier) has been great. We have already talked to (head football) coach (Joey) Fitzwater and principal Marsha Podsiadlik about possibility of having to go to the middle school,” Robertson said. “They have a really nice field and they also have a field behind the school that used to be a practice field.”
Getting adjusted to the artificial surface will also be important for the Cavaliers. The normal procedure would be to call the neighbors to the east for some time on their field. That is not an option at this time.
“Getting turf, you want to try and get your kids on that surface some. The normal route would be to call Greenbrier East and see if we can get on their field,” Robertson said. “They are in the process of replacing their field and the timeline is not much different from ours.”
If times do get desperate, Greenbrier West does have the option of turning to The Greenbrier for some assistance, as well as some other schools who now have turf fields.
“I would like to think we could get over to the Sporting Club at The Greenbrier possibly. There is a lot of things that go on there with activities and professional teams, but they have been gracious enough to get us on there a couple of times to practice,” Robertson said. “I won’t rule that out if we need somewhere to get on turf in August for a few days. I also think we have a really good relationship with schools around us, so if we really had to find a field, we could do it.”
Provided everything goes according to plan, Greenbrier West will host its first game on the new surface, Friday, Aug. 25 when it welcomes Pendleton County.