Bergen Catholic High School’s Enduring Commitment to Athletic Excellence

Decades-long relationship with Tarkett Sports has made leading solutions from FieldTurf and Beynon Sports integral to the school’s state-of-the-art facilities

Key Takeaways: Bergen Catholic High School

• Bergen Catholic High School has partnered with Tarkett Sports for nearly 30 years, relying on their surfaces to support nationally ranked athletics programs.
• The school is now on its third FieldTurf system at Jack McGovern Field, with the most recent upgrade featuring FieldTurf Genius smart technology to track usage and enhance safety, performance, and scheduling.
• The athletic venue was further enhanced with Beynon Sports track surfacing, creating a comprehensive, high-performance environment for multiple sports programs.
• Continuous technology improvements deliver grass-like performance with virtually no weather-related downtime, allowing Bergen Catholic to support other schools when needed.
• Proven durability, efficient installation, competitive pricing, and responsive service have reinforced Bergen Catholic’s long-term confidence in Tarkett Sports.

Since a first collaboration almost 30 years ago, Bergen Catholic High School has trusted Tarkett Sports to provide best-in-class surface solutions that support the development of its student-athletes. The school is currently on its third FieldTurf field at Jack McGovern Field (aka “The Jack”), with the most recent upgrade in 2020 incorporating FieldTurf Genius—industry-leading smart field technology that tracks field usage and helps optimize safety, performance, and scheduling.

In addition to the field used by the Crusaders' football, lacrosse, and soccer teams, Bergen Catholic also added elite track surfacing from Beynon Sports that surrounds “The Jack”. Check out the video to discover more:

Edited transcript of Danny Kurpick, Director of Facilities at Bergen Catholic High School, discussing the sports surfacing installations by Tarkett Sports.

We're roughly about 750 young men, ages 14 through 18. We're in Oradell, New Jersey, and we're a college prep school.

We are very big in sports and academics. We pride ourselves on excellence. We have lacrosse here, we have soccer here, we have football here, we play rugby here. Football is known, you know, all over the country. Our first two games every year are out of state, and we are always nationally ranked and many times in the top ten.

Back in 1998, FieldTurf was a product that we heard about and was put down in October, and we've never looked back. We first got the product, nobody knew about it.

Bill Parcells called me on the phone; I didn't believe him at first. He came, the Rutgers doctors came, the Giants doctors came to check out this field. When there was a strike in the NFL, they practiced on this field. They came and wanted to use it.

Every time you turn around, the technology's gotten better. So, in the beginning, our first field, we had painted numbers; now everything is stitched in. The colors are phenomenal, and the play is so much safer than frozen fields, stuff like that. We're very happy about it and this is the best product that we can ever ask for.

They took up the turf in a day, regraded, and put it down in a couple of days. It wasn't much, maybe two weeks total job from start to finish, which is phenomenal.

We now have CORE in our field, which is a newer product. Got green rubber aside from the black rubber in the sand. But the big thing is we never have a puddle in the place. We never get called off for rain. We've helped out other schools when they've lost their equipment and their stuff. We really try to be good neighbors with everyone around us.

The kids love it. They can cut better, they're much sharper but there are no dips, no bad hops. They're true hops, which is a very good thing. It plays like real grass. They really appreciate it.

We've had nothing but great success. The numbers were good. We've gotten prices from other companies. They've come in the best price, the best product, so why will we ever change? It's a no-brainer. And if we need anything, they're quick to come and maintain and give us whatever we need.

As long as I'm here, we're going no other way.