KANKAKEE - Kankakee High School's football program is back on the grind after putting together one of its best seasons in recent history.

The Kays finished last fall with a 6-4 overall record, including a first state playoff appearance since 2010. Kankakee's season ended with a 14-6 loss to Metamora in the first round and now, the Kays are looking to build on their success.

But while coaches and student-athletes are putting in work in the weight room and on the practice field, a construction crew is working just as hard to give the team a state of the art facility.

The school's district field turf project has reached a critical stage as Cosgrove Construction prepares the ground to be ready to absorb the installation.

"I can say we're on track with our deadline and we're hoping the weather continues to cooperate with us," Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Rob Grossi said. "What's happening now is Cosgrove is preparing the field. They're going to completely finish all of the drainage and leveling, before field turf is installed."

After Cosgrove finishes their duties, FieldTurf will begin the installation of artificial turf.

"The turf is going to be green and the two end zones are going to be maroon," Grossi said. "One is going to say 'Kankakee' and the other is going to say 'Kays.' Our target completion date is August 1. We want it to be ready before football practice can start."

The field turf project will also include a new resurfaced track, costing around $100,000.

"We're going to resurface the track and we're still working on what color it's going to be," Grossi said. "We're working with the details but we know we want to do it. The bids for our field turf came in under budget, and we included a resurfaced track as an alternative. We'll still be able to add a track surface and stay under budget."

The school district was given a budget of $1.5 million. Altogether, the football field's turf surface will cost around $1.3 million.

"This is a benefit for the community," Kankakee Superintendent Genevra Walters said. "We've had some community teams that have wanted to use our facilities. But we've had to be careful because you can't have too many activities on a grass field. This will solve that problem and it opens up the opportunity of more activities for our students and our community."

Walters also made mention of the band being able to practice on the field while noting the district's discussion of adding additional athletic programs such as lacrosse.

But she made sure not to leave out the district's students who may not be involved in athletics.

"I believe that we have several groups of students here," she said. "We have academic minded students, fine art students and athletically gifted students. We're focusing on the support of all three groups. The turf is more for our athletes and we're hoping we can start looking at other options for our softball and baseball fields as well."

Walters also spoke about how excited the district's athletes and coaches were when they learned of the field turf installation.

"They were extremely excited," she said. "Community members, board members and athletes, both past and present, have been talking about this for about 10 years now."

Walter said that the school district is planning on a ribbon cutting ceremony but the details have not yet been finalized.

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Kankakee High School making progress with field turf installation - Kankakee Daily Journal