MADISON TOWNSHIP — The Madison Athletic Booster Club stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park again.
The Madison school board on Tuesday voted 4-1 to approve the lease agreement with the booster club for the design and construction of artificial surface infields for the baseball and softball fields beginning in the fall.
The $1.2 million project also includes the replacement of STARTEK Stadium’s artificial surface after the conclusion of the 2025 football season.
“This is a great opportunity for almost no cost to the district,” superintendent Rob Peterson said. “The monies that are coming from the district, we would incur those costs to maintain the grass and dirt fields.”
District funding for the project includes a $200,000 grant from the Milliron Foundation, a $125,526 private donation to the Madison baseball program and $274,474 in permanent improvement funds that include facility rental revenue and money set aside on an annual basis since the initial installation of the artificial surface at STARTEK Stadium in 2014.
The athletic booster club secured a loan for more than $600,000 to cover the rest of the project.
“Our booster club, not only what they’ve done with this project but what they’ve done for us over the years … they’ve worked tirelessly,” Madison athletic director Doug Rickert said.
“To be able to get this loan and push this through, it’s just phenomenal. It really is amazing what they’ve been able to do.”
Located behind the high school, the baseball and softball complex has for years experienced drainage issues. Artificial-surface infields will largely eliminate unsafe playing conditions and cut down on the number of rainouts during unusually rainy springs like this year.
“There’s so much to this that people don’t realize. For a lot of years our softball team had to play a ton of their games on the road because our softball field didn’t hold water as well as the baseball field,” Rickert said.
“If you schedule a home game against a team like Shelby, which has the artificial surface, and there’s any rain at all, it’s going to be moved to their place.
“In our league, Wooster now has turf. Dover, which is coming in next year, has turf. It’s not fair to ask our kids to drive to Dover or Wooster twice because their field is playable and ours isn’t.”
None of it would be possible without the booster club, Peterson said.
“I want to be very clear to our community about the fact that this is an athletic booster club project and will cost the district little more than what it would have cost to maintain the fields if they remained dirt and grass,” Peterson said.
“We are so appreciative of our booster club, the Milliron Foundation, and the Runyon family for making this project possible.”
Suburban Cincinnati-headquartered The Motz Group is in charge of the installation. The company recently finished replacing the turf at Mansfield Senior’s Arlin Field.
If all goes as planned, Madison’s new-look fields will be ready for action next spring.
This is a dream-come-true for an athletic director and for the kids who get to play on those fields,” Rickert said. “This is a great day for Madison athletics.”