The 2021 Ridge football season has begun and the Ridge Army is getting ready to go wild in the student section on Friday nights. The new turf field has been striped with forest green and a burgundy mountain lion calls attention to the 50 yard-line, awaiting kickoff against Fairfax on September 10th. 

Mr. Miller, the new athletic director, has a large stretched canvas of the new facility hanging in his office. 

According to Miller, the artificial turf assists not only the football team, but also soccer, band, theatre, and track and field.

“It gives our teams opportunities to practice on the field,” Miller said. “Most people are probably not aware that because of natural grass, you cannot practice on it every single day, with football and soccer. It will just kill the grass.”

With assuring technologies to keep the field looking pristine, the facility is always ready for play.

“We can get more opportunities for our students,” Miller said. 

Although the field is ready and primed for Friday night lights, the turf does come with a bit of a change for our soccer teams. 

“In the past because we didn’t have a painted end zone with our name in it, [the penalty] box was slid back a little bit further,” Miller said. “But we didn’t want to put the yellow line right through our name because that would not look good.” 

The soccer goals will now be at the front of the endzone, rather than towards the back like in previous years with our grass field. 

“It still falls within our national guidelines, so it shouldn’t be an issue,” Miller said confidently. 

Mountain Ridge is one of many schools within our district to have made the change from grass to turf. Miller says the addition to our school is an excellent opportunity to take Ridge athletics to the next level.

“There’s a competitive piece to this,” Miller said. “When you have an elite level facility … people will choose to come to your school. As coaches, as families, and as student-athletes… they want to be part of a great program.” 

Additionally, the new field maintains MRHS’s status with our complex and established programs.

“If you want to host the state playoffs, which I do, we can do those kinds of special events. If you want to do something with theatre programs, you can do that,” Miller said. “It opens up the opportunity to do things that you just couldn’t do before.” 

The artificial turf is all-inclusive and fills in around the long jump, for track and field, and around the scoreboard, for football and soccer. 

“It just looks stunning. It’s got every amenity out there,” Miller said proudly.