The Browns made plans to beef up the grid iron for a few lucky high schools.
The announcement came this afternoon, listing five schools in Cleveland's school district to receive brand-new football fields-two of which will be built from the ground up.
New all-weather turf, updated scoreboards, new benches, are just some of the upgrades Cleveland high schools can look forward to.
"They're going to have a field to play on, they won't be playing in the mud, they won't have games cancel because the field conditions weren't well enough for them to play," said Vince Marquard, Commissioner of Athletics, for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
Multiple Cleveland Browns players and officials gathered today to announce the list of schools up for renovations…
“We feel it's vitally important to support kids from an educational and youth standpoint when it comes to athletics," explained Jenner Tekancic, Director of Community Relations for the Cleveland Browns.
Phase one of the two year plan, will start with renovating Rhodes and JFK high schools and phase two will wrap up with John Adams and John Marshall. Both will be built from the ground up.
“This is fantastic…Thank God that the Cleveland Browns stepped up and helped us,” exclaimed Councilman Zack Reed who spoke candidly with me about his excitement for the changes, especially within his ward.
"What this does is give our young people in the athletic field at John Adams the opportunity to now compete on an even playing field,” said Reed.
The multi-million dollar project will not only finance the renovations of the 5 football fields, but will also include maintenance from the Browns throughout the 8 to 10 year life span.
“I can’t imagine to see the faces on those young people when you tell them that they’re going to get a new football field. This is great for not only the people at John Adams, but for the people in the Union-Myles neighborhood,” Councilman Reed said.
Phase one of the project is set to be completed by August 1 of this year and officials told me the hope was that these renovations will peak the interests of others in the community to pitch in and expand the fields, which Reed said is already in the works for John Adams High School.
