..........the practice field saga takes a positive turn.

Am I reaching for a posting subject? I guess that's up for some debate. Anyway, I wanted you to see what I was talking about with that practice field. With the help of my very patient wife, and some band kids who didn't mind missing second period the other day; I finally got the practice field "band rehearsal worthy". Our first task was to see if any of the original lines were worthy of use. There was only one. The far sideline (over by the blocking dummy in the back) was the only line on the field that was correct. I began by re-painting that sideline and putting tic marks at each five-yard interval. Next, I took some green field paint and painted over the lines that were incorrect. As you can see, that green paint is not very close to the shade of real grass. The coaches gave me a couple of cases of paint to do that. They said that on the game field (The Field of Dreams), the green "boo-boo" paint turns a shade of blue. After painting the wrong lines green, we began to square the lines to the good sideline. Lisa and I worked until dark (about three hours) one evening, and didn't get very far. We just couldn't see well enough to get it done. The next morning, I got some band kids out there to help me out. I didn't have any surveying equipment, so we used some other rather primative techniques. All I can say is; "it worked"! We went to the first tic mark on the good sideline and laid down an ordinary framing square right in the middle of the line. From there, we stretched a string across the field from that point. I waved the kid on the other end of the string until the line appeared to be parallel to the framing square. We stretched the line tight and fastened it to the ground with screwdrivers. Now, with any luck the line we just ran is at a right angle with the sideline I painted. I tested it using the 3-4-5 method. I measured 30 feet up the string from the intersection of the string and the painted line and had one band kid put his finger on that point. I went to the intersection of the line and the string again and measured 40 feet from that point down the length of the line. Again, I had another band kid put his finger down to mark that point. If I have a good angle, the distance between these two points will equal 50 feet. All I can say is; "God loves marching band"! It worked! I quickly measured 160 feet across the sting, marked the point, and painted the line. We now have a sideline and one end zone line. I went to the other end of the field and did the same thing. Before running the other sideline, I had to check the distance in a couple of other places. Gladly, the measurements were correct within 4 inches - close enough! I then measured 53 feet 4 inches from the sideline to the hash mark, 53 feet 4 inches from hash to hash, and 53 feet 4 inches to the other sideline. After that we stretched the sting for each five-yard line and painted. We ran the sting for the hash marks last. Mission accomplished - we have a practice field that the band can rehearse on. The coaches were amazed that the field was off that much. Their comment was; "we played a scrimmage on that field last week. I wonder if anyone noticed?" No comment. Don't get me wrong, our coaches are very nice guys. I really do enjoy talking with them. I just have to keep the subjects of our talks within certain limits, and I don't use a lot of words over five or six letters. We had a four-hour band rehearsal yesterday (Saturday), and the field worked-out great. At the end of the season, I plan to pay someone to come over and survey the field and get it exact. I will then mark the points with large, visible stakes for next season. Go Huskies!!!