It’s finally time for some new fields! As of January 2026, all three of Shadow Ridge’s baseball, softball, and soccer fields will be replaced with brand new turf. The Clark County School District made the mandatory decision to replace many public schools in Nevada with turf a little over a year ago. CCSD is replacing the fields five to six schools at a time.

This new opportunity will help save lots of water, because Shadow won’t be using it in the sprinklers on the fields. The intense heat during the summer in Las Vegas and the lack of nutrients in the soil makes it hard to maintain healthy, green grass all year round.

Many states in the Western United States are fed with the melting snowpack from the Colorado Rocky Mountains. However, in recent years Nevada has had an increasing drought, which means less water from the mountains and less water for the states. Clark County has always been proactive in water preservation, and the school district has adopted that view by replacing the school district fields. Turf will save many gallons of water in the long run, which is great for Nevada.

The varsity baseball coach, Coach McCall, says there are both pros and cons to replacing the grass.

“I will miss mowing the grass and taking care of the baseball field, but it will be easier [with turf] and it will mean a lot less hours outside,” Coach McCall said.

CCSD will start the process of replacing Shadow’s fields with turf in May 2025, and the project will finish in January 2026. Luckily, none of the sports teams that utilize the three fields will be affected because the project will take place in between seasons.

Sophomore Chloe Covington, who is on the Varsity Softball Team at Shadow Ridge, is mostly on the positive side.

“I have mixed feelings,” Covington says. “I think it’s a plus because it will be a lot less work cleaning up the field after practices and games, but I think it’s harder to play on turf and it will take some time to get used to it. Overall, it is a plus because I’m excited for the new experience.”

McCall also knows that there is a safety feature with turf.

“It will help because everything will be flat and there will be no unfortunate or bad hops, so no one will get hurt,” McCall said. “In the end it’s better to have turf for the safety of the players.”