“It was the last play of the season, and I was running down the side, and I caught a little turf toe and got tackled at the same time. It tore my ACL,” freshman football player Thayer Dew said. Dew is one of hundreds of thousands who tear their ACL each year, an increasing number of whom are due to turf fields.
ACL tears, the most common knee injury in sports, are more likely on turf fields. These injuries occur because artificial turf is less forgiving and can increase rotational traction—the resistance that a shoe has when it is planted in grass. Although artificial grass costs less and is easy to maintain, many prefer natural grass because of its lower injury rate, premium feel, and look.
Alongside ACL tears, the tough surface of turf can damage players’ skin, including frictional burns and cuts. “You can get really bad burns if you fall onto it in a weird way. I don’t think that happens as much with regular grass,” junior lacrosse player Jack Harrman said. “When you fall, it hurts a lot more because you get cut up more,” junior lacrosse player Ryland Caelius added.
However, natural grass is also more expensive in the long run. Although the average installation cost of natural sod can be up to five times cheaper than artificial turf, grass has an average yearly maintenance cost of $32,00-$66,000. Artificial turf only costs between $1,600 and $3,300 to maintain so natural grass becomes cheaper after about seven years.
“Turf is pretty cheap compared to having to water and fertilize and everything you do for a normal grass field,” Athletics Director Paul Snow said. “I like the turf at M-A. It looks good and you can put logos on it.”
The cost-effectiveness of turf and its ability to retain paint for longer is especially useful at M-A, where sports funding is already spread thin.
“Finding a guy to stripe grass consistently is not easy to do, and our District guys don’t do it at all. They only stripe baseball and softball fields on their game days. They don’t do any striping for any other sport because everything else is inlaid into the turf fields for every sport that we play.”
In terms of performance, the differences between natural sod and turf are noticeable to many athletes, especially if the natural grass is not properly maintained. “[On grass], the ball is just bouncing all around. There are divots everywhere, so you can actually get hurt if you step in a hole and sprain your ankle,” soccer player Saleem Hamzawi said.
Still, some prefer grass to turf because of its protective properties, and some schools, like Menlo School, use it entirely for their fields. “Grass is softer and more forgiving when you fall, while turf is harder and can cause more scrapes and burns,” Menlo football player Hunter Moulds said.
“Turf can also feel faster, which changes how the ball moves and how I run. I prepare a little differently by choosing the right cleats and warming up more carefully on turf to avoid injury,” he added.
One study done by Penn State estimated that only 30-40% of high schools that have natural grass maintain it well. They also found that poorly maintained natural grass tends to have a higher injury rate than turf.
Despite the possible safety and aesthetic benefits of grass, M-A will continue to use synthetic grass as its field of choice due to its easy management and affordability.
