East Holmes community celebrates new soccer field

While the Hiland High School soccer field is usually littered with forwards, keepers, stoppers, midfielders and scorers, the field saw a new group parade on to the new turf field on Saturday, Sept. 26.

The high school celebrated the more than 60 donors who together paved the way for the new turf field to be built this past summer, and many of those donors were on hand to be honored for their commitment that made the project possible, even during a COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is our privilege to officially open our new turf field and recognize those who played a key role in making this possible for our students and our community,” said CJ Spreng, Hiland High and Middle School principal. “This state-of-the-art surface not only allows the soccer programs to have a great place to play, it also increases opportunities for our other athletic programs, our band, our physical education classes, as well as other community groups and activities.”

Spreng honored over 60 donors, as well as the Hiland Athletic Booster Club and Hiland athletic director Art Yoder.

“We had many people who worked hard behind the scenes to make this project possible,” Spreng said. “We couldn’t provide the outstanding experiences and the top-of-the-line facilities for our students without their hard work, support and dedication.”

In specifically addressing the donors for the project, Spreng said it takes a caring community, one that understands the importance of education and one that puts great value in providing for its youth, to make a project like this possible.

“It took a community of great support and faith to complete this project in the middle of a pandemic in such a short time frame,” Spreng said.

Those donors who were present then were honored one by one as they made their way up to the presentation area, where they were greeted by one of the Hiland soccer seniors from both the boys and girls teams, each receiving a hand-written letter of thanks from the seniors.

As both a member of the fundraising committee and a local business owner, Vince Mullet said the community should be proud of the support they continually give the school district and the way the project took flight during a tough time.

Mullet said the school had spent an inordinate amount of time battling the old grass field, trying to keep it in decent playing shape as usage and rain would create drainage issues and a swampy field every fall season.

In combating overuse on the grass, few teams outside of the varsity soccer teams could utilize the field, and even they oftentimes had to practice off to the side in hopes of preserving the field the best they could.

Other teams like the junior high teams and youth soccer programs would be forced to practice at Charm School, Mt. Hope Elementary or Berlin Mennonite Church’s field. In addition, the school marching band couldn’t use the field, nor could any school-related activities like physical education class take place there.

The new turf changed all of that, and Mullet, who has a young daughter coming up through the soccer program, said the district now has an all-purpose field that will be far more reliable and useful to the entire district.

“Seeing all of this come to fruition is very exciting for us as a school district,” Mullet said. “It took a lot of work and commitment from a lot of people, but we now have a facility that the school can use for much more than just soccer games.”

The turf project began approximately two years ago with a few people talking about the possibility of a turf field. It gained legs, and an idea grew into reality quickly.

After raising the needed funds to move forward on the project, which began after the school year ended last year and was finished up this summer, the fundraising committee nearly ran into a snag when COVID-19 forced them to revisit each of the donors to see if they wanted to continue their financial commitment and to ask if they should even move forward during a tough time.

Mullet said the response to move ahead as planned was overwhelming, and nearly 100% of the previous donors said they would stand by their initial contribution to the field project.

“The community has always supported us in giving us what we need to be successful as a school district,” Mullet said. “It was amazing to see how the community responded, both in the initial giving and through the virus. We heard unanimously that people would continue their support and that they wanted us to continue as planned.”

In ending his thank yous, Spreng turned his attention to the turf committee members, whom he said were instrumental in getting the project off the ground. He said their diligence and planning efforts in raising funds and giving the project direction were invaluable. Those members included Anthony Kaufman, Dave Coil, Mullet, Dave Schlabach, Carlos Mullet and Chris Gertz.

“We truly appreciate their leadership, direction and time they spent in bringing this project together,” Spreng said. “Thank you to each one of you and your tremendous support of our students and community.”