Calvary Christian Football Goes From Pits to Penthouse

In the second decade of the 21st  century, things change. Rapidly. And not just with technology.

Prior to this season, was the lone school that did not play its football games on campus. So tight was the small school's budget, that it actually had to lease a site from the city to play its home games at a youth soccer complex.

Now, not only will the Warriors have an on-campus field to play on this fall, it is the best facility in Pinellas County.

The school recently installed a FieldTurf football field, synthetic grass field, the first of its kind in Pinellas County. But the $4.2 million spent by the school, much of it a large donation by Dr. Pit and Joy Gills, members of the adjacent Calvary Christian Baptist Church, isn't just for the field.

"Having this is the reverse of what we have dealt with as a football program," said football coach Dave Bonchi. "Before, even for home games, we had to travel. They didn't feel like home games."

Included was an entire stadium that many Division III schools would be jealous of, perhaps even a Division II school.

A state of the art weightroom with windows overlooking the football field can rival any chain fitness center in the area.

Also, the stadium has an area for tailgating. There is an enclosed, supervised location for children to play.

Calvary Christian now becomes just the third school in the Tampa Bay area to have a synthetic turf field. The other two schools are both in Tampa - Jesuit and Plant.

For a school the size of Calvary Christian, with an enrollment of just over 200, the athletic facilities are extraordinary.

"The field is certainly spectacular and we've been truly blessed," Bonchi said.

FieldTurf is different from AstroTurf, one of the first and more popular artificial surfaces. AstroTurf, when first introduced, was little more than an expensive rug. Without the proper padding underneath, it was akin to playing on a road.

FieldTurf tries to better replicate grass with 1/2 to 3/4-inch blades and the surface is not as hard. While FieldTurf, which is now the most popular artificial surface for football throughout many major college and NFL stadiums, better copies grass, it is still plastic.

Just walking on the surface on a hot summer day, one can noticeably tell how much hotter it is because of the sun beating on the plastic grass.

In the early fall games when temperatures are still in the 80s or hotter after a full day of sunshine, the hot surface will certainly tax both the visiting team and Calvary Christian.

A homeowner in her yard recently. The city its use in its code.

Bonchi denied that any players currently on his team came to the school because of the new facility. At the same time, he admitted the new facilities will be a magnet for future players, as well as the academic standards of the school.

"I certainly believe it will be -- for the lack of a better term -- a selling point," Bonchi said. "The field is something we feel, as a Christian school, that we have a ministry. That is our core focus. We have excelled in the classroom because our school is a college prepatory environment but this is also an opportunity to reach people through athletics, and also help the community.

"It is first class."

The school will also host community soccer and flag football organizations and the school's soccer teams will call the field home.