The Tioga Tigers unveiled their new turf today, right on schedule.

Last December, voters approved the $4.5 million capital project to replace the grass with turf.

Construction began earlier this summer, with hopes the turf would be done in time for football. And today, the superintendent took his first steps on the field. 

But the project didn't come without a few worries. 

"The weather around the Southern Tier will make you have more gray hairs than you care to have," Mike Decker with Smith Site Development Business Development. "We were concerned from day one to the finish, but luckily we have an excellent crew, we have great workers and they pulled this off and we couldn't be happier."

The school made the switch from grass, which had poor drainage to turf, giving teams consistency and peace of mind that they'll have a place to play. 

"Oftentimes we were on a day to day basis on whether or not we could actually play our our games here," explained Superintendent for Tioga Central School District, Josh Roe. "We did have to cancel the game because the field was just so wet. So when discussing the weather patterns here and even when we had the tremendous rains here in August in this field was completely dry, drained out really well."

And it's not just the high school teams that will be enjoying the new field, but the whole community. 

"For our youth kids who will be coming up and be feeding our programs to play in a facility like this for a school, our size is kind of a rarity," Roe added. "There's not many schools that have graduating classes in the sixties and seventies right now that have full turf facilities like this."