MONTREAL, Sept. 21, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The premiere episode of NBC's highly-touted "Three Wishes" will feature a segment on the new FieldTurf field that has been installed at Sonora (CA) High School's Dunlavy Field. The segment, which details FieldTurf's generosity in helping Sonora get their new field, will air when "Three Wishes" debuts on NBC's new fall schedule this Friday, September 23 at 9:00 PM (ET).
The poor condition of the field at Sonora H.S. has long been a serious problem for the school, its students and the Sonora community. The school's administration was put in touch with NBC's "Three Wishes," and they were selected for participation by the show's staff. Since Sonora's "wish" was for a FieldTurf field, FieldTurf CEO John Gilman was contacted about making Sonora's "wish" come true. FieldTurf is donating the great majority of the project's cost in order to make the "wish" happen.
"We were thrilled to get involved with Sonora High School and NBC for this very worthwhile project," said Gilman. "The field that they had previously was in very bad shape, and Dunlavy Field is so important to this community. I know it sounds cliched, but it really is so incredibly rewarding to see the smiles that you can put on so many faces by getting involved in something like this. Everyone has been so great to work with. But the most important thing is that the kids at Sonora High, and the community of Sonora, are all going to benefit from this. They've got a brand-new state-of-the-art FieldTurf field, and everyone at FieldTurf is very proud that we were able to play a part in making this happen."
"It's beyond our wildest dreams," said Sonora H.S. Principal Terry Clark.
"This is an incredible surface," said Sonora Head Football Coach Robert Cendro. "People who haven't seen it or weren't sure what it was are going to say, 'Wow!' It's just incredible."
In the past, Sonora's field was unusable for as much as 50% of the year, due to the grassless surface, overuse, weather, etc. "The safety issue was huge," said Barb Smith, a physical education teacher at Sonora. "It (the FieldTurf) is the living end for us."
NBC's "Three Wishes" stars Amy Grant, Carter Oosterhouse, Diane Mizota and Eric Stromer.
More than 30 NCAA major football programs have FieldTurf in their stadiums, including Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Louisville, Kansas State, Boston College and Missouri. In addition to its growing popularity in the college ranks, FieldTurf has already established itself as the turf of choice in the National Football League. Twenty-three of the NFL's 32 teams currently use FieldTurf at their stadiums and/or their practice facilities. Also, three Major League Baseball teams are using FieldTurf at their stadiums in 2005. FieldTurf was also the first artificial turf product approved by FIFA (soccer's world governing body) for World Cup play.
The NFL Players Association recently conducted a survey of all NFL players who were asked to rank the league's 32 stadium fields on a variety of factors, such as playability, safety, etc. The NFL players ranked FieldTurf fifth out of 32, and amazingly, NFL players rated FieldTurf ahead of 15 of the league's 19 natural grass fields.
FieldTurf is the result of years of research -- evident in the patented FieldTurf infill mix of silica sand and cryogenic rubber and patented layering process that deliver a system that emulates natural grass. Additional benefits are found in improved player safety, reduced maintenance costs and flexibility for conversion -- allowing stadium managers to quickly change the field from one sport to another or to easily host a variety of sporting events, concerts and other special events directly on top of the FieldTurf surface.
Over the past few years, the quality and performance of FieldTurf's patented system has resulted in over 1500 installations in more than 40 countries. For more information on FieldTurf, please visit www.fieldturf.com or call (800) 724-2969.