Pace High School to build $1.5 million football field, track

With gold-painted shovels, school leaders, supporters and alumni broke ground on the Monsignor Edward Pace High School football field on Dec. 5.
The $1.5 million project to replace the gridiron turf and running track with man-made materials at the Miami
Gardens school is expected to be completed in spring 2020.
Mascot Eddie the Spartan was there, along with 900 students who cheered and did the wave while watching from the football stadium’s stands.
“Today is a special day,” Principal Ana Garcia said. “I wanted all of you to be part of this event.”
Pace was due for a new field; it hasn’t had a substantial renovation for more than three decades.
“This is the same field that I played football on in ‘87,” Miami Lakes Vice Mayor and Pace alumnus Nelson
Rodriguez said. “The day has finally come to upgrade our field. It’s a proud day to be a Spartan.”
The football field will be made of a synthetic material called FieldTurf and the running track that surrounds it will be made from polyurethane, a product known as Beynon Sports Surfaces.
The products are able to sustain harsh South Florida weather conditions, the school said.
CSR Construction, Inc. in Deerfield Beach is the general contractor. Its website lists several high school, college and municipal fields and tracks in South Florida that its athletic construction division has built.
The Pace project is a third of the way paid for.
Pace said it has collected over $500,000 from donors and sponsors.
The Catholic school, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Miami, is offering naming rights to donors for everything from the field and stadium to the ticket booth and concession stand.
Eighty percent of the students participate in school athletics, said Surella
Rodriguez, Pace’s director of alumni relations.
“Even the students that don’t play a sport will get to use the new field during physical education classes,” Rodriguez said.
There are strong ties between Pace and Miami Lakes and surrounding communities, which the school said numbered to 100 families.
Currently, 65 students enrolled at the school are from Miami Lakes.