MARIETTA - The head football coach at Osborne High School and several booster club members are speaking out against the district's proposed schedule for artificial turf installation now that Osborne is in the second tier of schools to get the turf, which will most likely interrupt their fall football season.

Booster club members John Williams and Richard Tinker, along with head coach Troy Jones, spoke to the board about the proposed turf installation schedule at its meeting on Thursday, claiming they were never consulted about plans to move Osborne from the first installation group to the second. This move will delay Osborne's turf installation until the end of July and most likely cut into the school's football season, something Jones says the school cannot afford.

"Financially speaking, over the past three football seasons, our net profit ranged from $12,000 to $15,000," Jones said. "Having to relocate our home games this season will cause a severe blow to our entire football program. Typically, when the team plays at another school stadium they will concede concessions and keep the gate money. If this were to happen, our football program would have a difficult time existing."

Williams said the booster club, the football coaches and the principal didn't get word of the change in the schedule until reading it in a Journal article on May 18. Williams then started asking questions and e-mailed the district's chief of SPLOST, Doug Shepard for some answers.

Shepard told the Osborne boosters that since the turf installations were delayed because of the lawsuit, the district decided to reorganize its schedule and balance it fairly, based on the geographical location of schools throughout the county, as well as the condition of each field.

"We felt that it was only fair, because of the delay of the lawsuit, that we re-evaluate the schedule and consider a geographical distribution that would allow Phase 2 schools to play at a regional field that would be completed at Phase 1," Shepard told the Journal.

Shepard also assured the Journal that the district was consulting with the schools in Phase 2 of the schedule, because the installation for these schools would likely interfere with football season.

Before east Cobb resident, Walter 'Pete' Borden filed a lawsuit with the district questioning the usage of SPLOST III monies on artificial turf, the district had a three-tiered plan to install turf in the county's 16 high schools. Osborne, South Cobb, Pope, Kell and Wheeler high schools were in Phase 1. Campbell, Pebblebrook, Sprayberry, North Cobb Kennesaw Mountain and Walton high schools were in Phase 2, while Phase 3 included Hillgrove, Allatoona, Harrison, Lassiter and McEachern high schools. Harrison, Lassiter and McEachern all already have artificial turf fields and would be using their share of the money, about $550,000 to $600,000, to install a turf practice field.

After the board was finally legally allowed to vote to award a contract to the Marietta-based Deluxe Athletics, the district worked with the company to create a new installation plan, which changed the three phases into four and moved around several schools. Phase 1 of installation, which will begin in June, includes South Cobb, Walton, Kennesaw Mountain and Pope. Phase 2, which the Osborne community was told would begin on July 29, includes that high school along with Campbell, Kell and Wheeler. In Phase 3, beginning winter of 2010-2011, Sprayberry, Pebblebrook, Harrison and Lassiter will get turf. And in the final phase, which will begin next summer, turf will be installed for Allatoona, North Cobb, Hillgrove and McEachern.

"In the first two phases there are 8 schools and all 7 posts are represented," Shepard said. "There is a school from each of the 7 posts represented in the fields."

But with keeping with this current schedule, Jones said it may lead to the ultimate demise of the Osborne football program as a whole.

"If we are forced to move a home game we would have to give up the concessions to the host school," Jones said. "That's usually 50 percent of our net profit. If we have to give up our jamboree and our first two home games (financially) it would be devastating.

"If we don't have a field the first three or four weeks of football season, it's going to be a tough blow to our sub-varsity program. It would likely mean the JV and freshman teams would practice the entire season but only get to play two or three games. Maybe this is something other schools could handle, but our whole football program depends on being in Phase 1.

Despite Shepard’s assurances, there is no guarantee that if Osborne had its games moved to a school where the turf installation was complete they would remain close to the Cardinals’ fan base.

By the time the season starts, current Phase 1 and Phase 2 would mean South Cobb and McEachern would have turf while Osborne and Campbell would have their fields under construction. That creates a big problem on September 3, the second Friday of the season. South Cobb is scheduled to be on the road during Week 2, while McEachern, Osborne and Campbell all have home games. With only one school able to use South Cobb's field, it would mean either Osborne or Campbell would likely play in a nearly empty stadium in west Cobb at Harrison or in east Cobb at either Lassiter or Pope.

Tinker also found flaws in Shepard's logic, pointing out that Kennesaw Mountain, a school scheduled to get turf in Phase 1, has four playing fields, which can all be used for fall sports, while Osborne has only one.

"You could replace their (Kennesaw Mountain's) field at any time and not interrupt anything they do," Tinker told the board. "Whereas you could replace ours before the season and make our season successful ... Osborne has the most need for the turf field right now."

Chris Daniluk, the owner of Deluxe Athletics says a typical installation usually takes between 40 and 60 days. Daniluk hopes to have at least four fields done by this fall, and possibly all eight of the fields in the first two phases, if the weather cooperates. Deluxe Athletics and the district say all of the district's 16 fields will be installed by fall 2011. Daniluk also said the schedule went from three phases to four, because of the lawsuit. The original schedule called for a long installation phase in the spring and summer, Daniluk explained, but had to be realigned when the district lost the chance to install during the spring.

The Osborne community is still worried that their turf won't be done in time for this fall, and is asking the board to rearrange the schedule and once again put Osborne at the top of the installation list.

Williams, who is on the board-appointed oversight Facilities and Technology committee, said the F&T committee was also never told about the change in the schedule, and was always told that Osborne, Pebblebrook and South Cobb would be in the first phase of installation. The three high schools, in the southern part of the county, Williams says, have the worst field conditions and need the turf the most.

"We don't really have a field, we have dirt," Williams told the board on Thursday. "Our practice field shouldn't even be played on. I'm surprised we don't have more injuries than we do now. We've had teams from other counties who have come to play on our field that almost refuse to play."

Jones said the current field conditions have severely stunted the growth and rejuvenation of the Cardinals' program.

"I'm finishing up my fifth year here," Jones said. "We've probably sacrificed three winning seasons since I've been here because of injuries."

Jones said nearly all the injuries have happened during home games and they are not the kind of injuries strength and conditioning coaches can control.

"Ankle injuries," Jones said. "Many are ankle injuries. Six or seven starters get injured, and we haven't had a lot of depth since I've been here.

"I think right now. We are leaning on borrowed time before we have a catastrophic type injury."

But Williams went on to say that it's more than just about football, and that the other non-revenue generating sports get to share in the money that is raised at home football games.

"And people are going to say, it's not just about football, it's where the needs are in our community," Williams said. "We don't have any industry to draw revenues from. So everything we do is based on our activities we do at the school."

Board member Alison Bartlett, who represents Osborne, said she too was surprised to find out the high school was in the second phase of installation, saying it was her understanding Osborne's turf would be installed first.

If Osborne was forced to forfeit their home football season, Bartlett said: "It's a major impact to our revenues in the fall."

"The biggest thing it's about what they're doing for our community. We want to stop looking like we're the leftovers and we start looking like the rest of the county," Williams said.