Work completed on most-expensive athletic field in county
Ted Nyberg
An aerial view shows Rosman High School’s newly renovated synthetic-turf football field.
Work has wrapped up on the complete renovation and artificial-turf installation project at the Rosman High School football field just before the start of the 2025 season.
With a final budget of $2.3 million, the new state-of-the-art synthetic-turf field is the most expensive outdoor athletic field in the county by a factor of more than two and eclipses the amount spent on similar projects at many other high schools in western North Carolina.
Kerry Putnam, Transylvania County Schools facilities director, said the project will likely come in slightly under that budget when final invoices are received next month, but the project’s budget ballooned more than seven times its original amount when revitalization of the field was initially proposed in fall of 2023.
The original scope of work for Rosman’s field was to fix major drainage issues under the natural-grass football field which caused sinkholes and an ever-changing playing surface. The initial amount approved to fix the drainage issues and revitalize the grass field was $325,000.
In February 2024, Putnam presented to the Transylvania County Board of Education the initial cost estimates would not be enough to fix the problems.
On top of asking for more funds to fix the drainage, Putnam asked the board to consider installing synthetic turf on the field instead of going back to grass after the drainage repair work was done. Putnam received estimates from several companies and told the board the project was likely to top out around $1.1 million.
The board of education approved a request to ask the county commissioners for the money for the turf upgrade at its February 2024 meeting.
Money for the project ultimately came from cash funds from Transylvania County’s general fund and not from the $68 million school-improvement bond which was voted on in 2018 and sold in late 2024.
During this same time, TCS faced many issues from lack of funding including: troves of teachers leaving for higher paying positions in other counties; losing pay for positions from COVID-19-era funding; operating a pre-K program at a major loss; and school buildings in desperate need of repairs.
As part its yearly budget request for fiscal year 2025, the board of education asked county commissioners unsuccessfully for more money for positions and programs such as school counselors and more pre-K classrooms.
The commissioners instead opted to allot $4.3 million (5% of the county’s overall budget for 2024) towards four athletic facility projects at county schools in June 2024. The Rosman field project was budgeted at $2.1 million from that allotment, nearly double original estimates for the project.
OTHER FIELDS
Three other artificial turf fields have been installed in Transylvania County in the past 11 years, one each at Brevard High School; Brevard College; and the Ecusta Fields soccer complex owned by the city of Brevard.
Brevard High School’s field conversion was completed in 2014 and cost around $460,000 when it was completed. Adjusting for inflation that project would have taken $635,000 in 2025 if costs staid the same. The cost for BHS’ field renovation was split. The county paid $130,000, the school board paid $130,000 and the rest of the funds were donated by private contributors, major of which were Frank and Donna Patton.
When BHS’s field was built, it also hosted home games for Brevard College until 2021 when the Tornados moved back on campus to a renewed football facility. Brevard College paid leasing fees for use of the field which were used by the high school to redo the artificial turf surface on the field last season, 10 years after it was first installed.
Brevard College's football field was originally built as a multi-use field in 2016 and was built at a cost of just over $1 million according to a spokesperson for the college.
The second-newest turf field in the county, Ecusta Field was completed in November 2023 and is used year-round by hundreds of soccer players of all ages. The $1.1 million project was also paid for mainly by private donations and is even larger than the field at Rosman.
ROSMAN HIGH
Rosman High School is situated in the middle of the town of Rosman and has a shrinking student population. The school is expecting 257 for the next school year.
The finished field will likely host a maximum of only five Rosman varsity home football games throughout the year and a further five home junior varsity games. The field will also host youth-league football games which are not associated with the school system. The football team normally dresses out between 14-20 players during their varsity games and has won one game per season in the past two years.
Their win against Owen in 2023 broke a four-year 40-game losing streak.
No other athletic teams at Rosman High School utilize the field as the school does not have a soccer program.
Putnam said he opted to include soccer lines on the schools field when addressing the board of education at a 2024 meeting because he said he expected growth at the school.
