JEFFERSON TWP — Knoch's athletic fields can take a licking and keep on ticking.

But a lot of rain? Different story.

A rainy spring and fall have taken a toll on the Knights' grass soccer and football fields this year — enough so that Knoch High School athletic director Josh Shoop presented the problem at a recent school board meeting.

“We couldn't use our home soccer field for close to two weeks,” Shoop said. “It was just too saturated. We've had to play games on the KASA (Knoch Area Soccer Association) fields at Laura Doerr Park.

Knoch's boys played a home game against Deer Lakes on the high school soccer field Tuesday — the first time the field was playable in 11 days.

“Our football field is in pretty decent shape considering the number of events we have there,” said Chris Reiser, Knoch's director of building and grounds. “The soccer field needs to be crowned better and we're bringing a company in to look at that.

“We had rain for eight straight days at one point. No matter what you do, a grass field can only handle so much water.”

Shoop presented results of a study done in Seattle about how many events can be held on a grass surface to still enable that grass to stay in good shape.

“To keep the grass in optimum condition, you can play 15 football games and one other event on it in a given season,” Shoop said. “To keep a field in good condition, you can play 30 to 35 football games on it and another two or three events.”

From mid-August through the end of October, Knoch's varsity football field will have housed 63 total events.

Reiser said that includes everything from the band pie festival to football scrimmages, middle school games, junior varsity, varsity and Saxonburg Spartan games.

“The midget team was out there playing in a downpour one Saturday, but the field bounced back well from that,” Reiser said.

Shoop said rain fell on 57 of 102 days during last spring's athletic season and the sports campaign so far this fall.

“Certainly, that contributed to the deterioration,” Shoop said. “But we still have to improve the quality of that soccer field. Too many teams need it.”

The South Butler School District has 11 teams that need an outdoors field to play on during the fall months.

The idea of installing artificial turf in the football stadium has been raised before and will likely be raised again. Knoch is among a handful of WPIAL Class AAA schools that don't have turf.

“That decision is up to the school board,” Shoop said. “There's a wide range of costs for turf these days, anywhere from $600,000 to a million. After a number of years, a turf field pays for itself. But you have to replace it after every 10 years or so, too.

“We have to take care of our grass fields regardless. Drainage is an issue and even with a turfed football stadium, our teams would need places to practice.”

Reiser admits to being a proponent of artificial turf coming to Knoch.

“Our football team probably has an advantage in home games these days because we're used to playing on grass,” he said. “But bad weather can really handcuff some of your teams.

“A school district our size, with so many teams ... I think it's really something we should look at.”