Dirk Wedd is tired of talking about the football field at Haskell Stadium.

One can hardly blame him.

For a field that has been mud and guck most of the season, take a good look tonight. The lush green field for the Lawrence High-Blue Valley North Class 6A playoff game isn’t an illusion.

It’s just a welcome change.

It took 3,200 square yards of sod to cover up the dirt that doubled as a football field the last month. Rain, no sunshine and lots of football chewed up the field to the point where it was three to four inches of mud.

Football isn’t meant to be played in inches-deep mud. Rain, snow, sleet, yes. Absolutely. But mud that deep takes away the skill aspect of the game, ensuring that whoever has the bigger, more physical team, wins.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the bigger, more physical team shouldn’t win ” that’s football at its core.

But skill should be a factor, and when you can’t move on a field because it’s a quagmire, that’s not football.

The sod Haskell installed ” a turf-type fall fescue, according to Dick Stuntz, vice president of golf facilities at Alvamar golf course ” is better than what most people put on their lawn or even what was installed last December. That’s because the sod itself, not the grass, is cut about an inch and a half thick underneath, similar to how a professional football team would repair a worn spot in its stadium.

“It comes in big rolls and we just cut it very thick,” Stuntz said. “You have a good inch of soil under it and you lay it tight. It has enough stability to play immediately.”

Tonight’s game should be football as it’s meant to be. Of course, with the Haskell football and soccer teams playing on the same field this weekend, and with more high school football next week, the turf will get chewed up again.

That’s why an artificial turf should be installed. A surface like the one at Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium would be ideal ” a realistic surface that could withstand the punishment the Haskell field endures.

Don’t scoff. This isn’t a new idea, or even all that far-fetched.

“We’ve talked to Haskell about a joint fund-raiser for it,” Wedd said. “And they were receptive to it. I mean, people talk about a $5 million sports complex. To me, a half a million for a new field makes much more sense.”

Both FSHS athletic director Steve Grant and LHS athletic director Ron Commons agree that an artificial surface is on their wish lists.

“It is a great venue for high school football,” Grant said of Haskell Stadium. “It’s the right size and all that. It’s just that the field gets beat to death.”

Andover, a suburb of Wichita, built a new high school a few years ago, and with it, installed artificial turf in its stadium, and the new stadium in Topeka will have the same. Rockhurst High in Kansas City, Mo., has the same thing. It’s not unheard of for high school football.

It just has be funded.

That’s where LHS or FSHS alumni come in. For that matter, anyone willing to donate roughly $500,000 to $600,000 for turf and installation would shoot to the top of the list for benefactors.

The stadium has a name, the arch has a name, but the field doesn’t. For the right price, you could own a piece ” excuse me, sponsor a piece ” of the future of Lawrence football.

“If we could get the right sugar daddy to step up, I think they’d probably be receptive to it,” Wedd said.

So would any other fan of high school football.