Rigby High School will be playing on a new field this season

RIGBY, Idaho (KIFI) - After some hard work and the donations of an excited community, the Rigby High School will be playing on a new football field once the first home kickoff has taken place. The grass field has been replaced with turf, and the field scoreboard has been updated to a newer score board.

The funds for the brand new field were donated by many of the local business throughout the city. The scoreboard came from West Mark Credit Union, with a grant covering most of the cost of the the turf with other local businesses donating funds as well.

On the community support for the new scoreboard and turf district superintendent Chad Martin said, "The school in Rigby has always been kind of a place where the community comes together. And I think this is a symbol of that. And and I know our our coaches are excited, our athletes are excited, and our community is excited. It's just a it's a great thing for for us and our kids."

Martin says everything that went into the new field was collabrative with admin, and the school with athletic program coaches involved.

"I think it came out just beautiful, great contrast of colors and and really just something that we could be proud of."

Rigby Football coach Armando Gonzalez says his team is excited to play on the turf field this football season.

"To be honest, any other kids, they want to just go and play football and they don't really care with the surfaces, to be honest. You know, for us, the weather plays a factor and the climate, especially as the season goes later. So it's a safer surface."

Gonzalez says having a safer surface for his team will benefit the team as the season goes on.

"Longer term, I know grass. They've done recent studies and grass has been found to be the most consistent and safe surface. But that's if grass is soft. Once we get to a frozen field, by the time we get to October, November and end of the season, it's not a safe field anymore. It's really hard and the grass goes dormant."

Gonzalez also echoed Chad Martin's sentiments on the way the Rigby community rally's around the high school teams and shows out saying, "We have a great, I think, home atmosphere. I think our community comes out and supports and we're running out of room in terms of where people can sit. So I know we want to expand the stadium and offer those opportunities for people to come and enjoy the games. And so we're thankful to have a community that supports us and hopefully we can just keep winning some football games."

Martin on behalf of the district and school said this in gratitude for the community donors who helped create a safer field and newer team atmosphere.

"Thank you to our community, to our donors, to we have individuals are donating so much time and effort to this. And so we're grateful for them and just our commitment to our student athletes and to our community as a whole."

The field will welcome the Rigby Trojans Football team Sept. 2 for the first home game of the year.