As the historic Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston, SC, home field for The Citadel’s football program, transitions from natural grass to synthetic turf, it also becomes the first Division I Athletics program in the U.S. to install T°Cool® evaporative cooling technology.
With the installation of T°Cool, The Citadel is joining ten high schools and a municipality across the Carolinas who are installing T°Cool during spring/summer 2020, to help make their fields cooler, safer and more playable.
“The safety of participants that use our facilities is a priority at The Citadel,” said Robby Bennett, assistant athletic director for facilities for The Citadel. “We look forward to TCool’s cooling effect on our stadium’s artificial surface to help maximize player safety in Charleston’s extreme heat.”
“Having a Division I program recognize the benefits of a cooling solution on their new synthetic turf fields adds tremendous credibility, as we continue to educate municipalities and school districts across the nation on the benefits of evaporative cooling for synthetic turf fields,” said Chris Tetrault, inventor of T°Cool. “With installations planned this spring and summer, a dozen locations across the Carolinas are leading the trend to ensure synthetic turf fields are cooler, safer and more playable for millions of daily participants.”
During the warm weather months, synthetic turf fields across the country can get hot and often reach the 160-degree level. T°Cool lowers synthetic turf surface temperatures by 30 to 50 degrees, without compromising performance benefits. An eco-friendly solution, it coats the black crumb rubber infill as well as sand. Once treated, the T°Cool solution continuously activates through rain, dew, humidity, and/or watering the field. It also encapsulates (95%+) of the infill. This encapsulation reduces the coefficient of friction, thus diminishing both the number and severity of turf burns.
