There has been a lot of heavy equipment roaming through the Emmaus High School football stadium and surrounding fields this summer.

The East Penn School District undertook a plan to install synthetic turf on the football field, which was recently completed.

To install the field, a layer of topsoil had to be removed and instead of just carting the dirt off somewhere, the school district put it to good use. The dirt was moved to the former softball practice field located adjacent to the football stadium.

“With the synthetic turf, we aren’t able to have throwing events [javelin and discus] in the stadium for track and field,” explained EHS Athletic Director Becky George. “We moved the dirt to the practice field and were able to level that part of the field out better than it was so we can use that for javelin and discus and give our other teams a better practice field to utilize.”

The synthetic turf in the stadium included not just a new playing surface for football, but a new track as well.

“That part of the practice field will be much better for our teams than it was in the past,” George noted. “There was a slope to it that made it a little difficult at times, but with the new topsoil and being able to level everything out, it will be much better.

“It will also give us a good area for the throwing events to be held.”

The new football surface will be used early in the season when the Hornets play their first two games at home. They open October 2 against Allen and follow that up with a game the next Friday night against Dieruff. They will also host Whitehall later in the five-game season. Their road games will be against Parkland and Central Catholic.

The new track and areas for javelin and discus will have to wait until the track and field season in the spring to be utilized for competitions.