After season-long ordeal Muhls will feel right at home again this season
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Muhlenberg enjoyed a breakthrough football season in 2024, winning a postseason game for the first time in seven years, but Rob Flowers doesn’t want to go through anything like that again.
When safety issues were discovered at their newly renovated home field the Muhls went through weeks of uncertainty and ended up playing their final 10 games on the road.
“We made the best of it, but it was difficult,” Flowers said of his first season as Muhlenberg’s head coach, which ended with a 24-0 victory over William Allen and an Eastern Conference Class 5A/6A championship.
“It wore on our coaching staff and it wore on our guys, just because we were constantly on the road,” Flowers said. “(That involves) different planning, different prep, longer days, longer nights. It wore on us toward the end, but we made the most of it.”
The good news for the Muhls: Issues at their home field have been rectified and they’re scheduled to play eight of their 10 games there in 2025.
That should prove beneficial for a rebuilding team that finished 4-7 and equaled its win total of the previous five seasons. Many of the key players, including record-setting 2,000-yard rusher Cameron Small, are set to return.
“We’re gonna rally around that, for sure,” Flowers said of the home-field advantage.
Gaining such a windfall was painful.
Flowers and his players learned just hours after their season-opening 29-20 victory over Schuylkill Valley, in Laureldale, that construction materials used for the artificial turf on their home field were considered hazardous and they wouldn’t be able to play there until safety issues were resolved.
It turned into what Muhlenberg superintendent Dr. Joseph E. Macharola termed “a sorryful mess.”
Muhlenberg was forced to move its second home game, in Week 3 vs. Daniel Boone, to Kutztown University. It’s Week 4 home game against Lebanon was played at the Cedars’ home field.
The Muhls didn’t realize it at the time but their home opener turned out to be their only home game. Senior Night and Homecoming games were played on the road.
“We ended up playing at 12 different venues (including a scrimmage at McCaskey),” Flowers said.
The issue surfaced shortly after the home opener when it was discovered that metal filings were used as fill material below the artificial playing surface. Macharola said the school district contracted to have rubber pellets used as fill and called the metal pieces dangerous.
Macharola laid blame for use of substandard fill on Liberty Tire Recycling of Pittsburgh, one of the subcontractors in the renovation project.
“What they gave us . . . nobody would’ve expected this,” he said.
Installation of stadium turf, replacing the grass surface, was completed last summer; initial estimates for the project were $1.4 million.
The stadium turf was completely removed late in the fall and replaced by a new surface, called Game On turf, the same used at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. The project was completed in December and the field is now usable.
Macharola praised Schlouch Inc., which oversaw the project, and Shaw Sports Turf, of Calhoun, Ga., for their efforts in correcting the problem. He called their cooperation “impeccable” in addressing “extraordinary circumstances with our turf field.”
“They kept their word,” he said. “They stood by the (school) district. I was not let down by a company trying to take advantage of the taxpayers. We now have the Lamborghini of (high school football fields).”
The process was not painless. Even though the field was replaced at no cost to the Muhlenberg School District lost an estimated $35,000 to $85,000 because of the ordeal, Macharola said. The district lost money on potential ticket sales and concession sales for the four lost home games, plus it had to pay a rental fee to play at Kutztown University.
(Home games scheduled for Muhlenberg against Lebanon, Gov. Mifflin and Ephrata were flipped to those schools in 2024 and will be played at Muhlenberg in 2025.)
While playing all those games away from home might not have affected the Muhls’ won-loss record it did dent the momentum Flowers was trying to create for the program. They got off to a great start with the upset of Schuylkill Valley, which went on to win nine games and the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 title, but sustaining that became more difficult by not being able to play at home again.
There was no replacing memories for the seniors – players, cheerleaders, members of the band — who couldn’t experience a true Senior Night or Homecoming.
“Our kids missed out,” Macharola said. “Sadly, I can’t get that back for them. My heart aches over that.”
Good things are ahead for Muhlenberg, which is in the midst of a $180-200 million expansion project that will include a new multi-purpose field and new gymnasium.
“Now we have an extraordinarily beautiful field and our kids are going to be participating in an outstanding facility,” Macharola said. “This is something for our community to be proud of. We just can’t wait to get on there.”
