Paul Vallas stood under a tent near Northeast High School's football field last Dec. 10.

It was the Public League championship, and the field at Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium looked appropriately enough like a war zone. (Charlie Martin, by the way, was a World War II hero.)

Snow and ice banked the sidelines and end zones, and a steady rain was drenching not only the players from Frankford and George Washington, but the overused gridiron as well. It was, simply put, a mudslide.

"He turned to us and said, 'This will never happen again,' " Northeast principal Kelly Barton said of Vallas, the school district's chief executive officer.

This weekend, almost one year later, Charlie Martin Stadium and its new artificial turf will host the Public League quarterfinals, thus signaling the beginning of a new era for the city's 32 high schools.

"This has been the best thing to happen to the Public League in many years," said Marge Wuestner, the district's executive director of health, safety, physical education and sports administration. "We've had a long tradition of great athletes, and now finally they will have state-of-the-art fields."

Vallas, who spent six years running Chicago's school district, began his tenure in July 2002. He immediately began asking questions about the state of the schools' athletics.

"He asked, 'How many state championships does Philly have,' " said Wuestner. "And we answered, 'None.' He said at that moment that it wasn't acceptable... . [Two years] later, the Public League can now qualify for the PIAA tournaments."

Then, when Vallas and Mayor John Street toured the city in a trolley and visited Northeast and saw the condition of the facility, one of the city's five supersites, Vallas knew something had to be done.

"He did the same things for the kids in Chicago," said Wuestner. "When he saw the conditions of the fields in the city, he went out and got capital money."

The four other supersites - fields that are centrally located and able to accommodate many athletic events - are at Dobbins, Southern, Germantown and Simon Gratz. The School Reform Committee meets on Wednesday to decide when to proceed on updating Germantown and Gratz. Most likely, construction will begin in mid-December. The schedules for Southern and Dobbins are undetermined.

For years now, Northeast's field had gotten repeated use from several public and Catholic schools. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, when Northeast and Central meet for one of the oldest rivalries in the nation, it became nearly impossible to spray yard lines on the mud.

The idea to improve not only the field but other areas of the facility had been in the works for years. But it wasn't until the capital improvement money was approved - $2.2 million for Phase 1 - that it became apparent that most of the neglected parts could be renovated.

Before hiring a construction company, a committee took the necessary steps in planning.

First, it held town meetings with the school's neighbors. The 46-acre campus is a centerpiece in the Northeast, and many of its constituents use the track and the fields.

"They're excited as well as the students," said Bob LeMoine, Northeast's assistant principal. "I run and I can't wait to use the track myself."

Then a team of teachers, administrators, and coaches went on a bus tour of Owen J. Roberts and Wissahickon - two suburban schools with turf fields and modern facilities.

The A-Turf company, which many colleges and high schools have used, was hired for their dense, consistent carpet. The synthetic grass is filled with 60 percent rubber pellets and 40 percent sand.

Over time, the infill will settle into the ground to form a soft, injury-effective exterior, school officials said.

The digging began on Aug. 5, with the goal to finish by Thanksgiving. But thanks to good weather, the crew was able to work ahead of schedule. Even the remnants of a hurricane didn't slow down the work.

"After getting six inches of rain [in September], I thought it was going to be a mess," said one worker. "But when we came the next day there wasn't a drop of rain."

"To me, the drainage is the key," Barton said.

The drainage system surrounds the field. Pipes that collect the moisture from underneath the surface funnel toward the drains.

The eight-lane all-weather track will be finished in the spring. The orange rubberized surface needs several consecutive days of warm weather to dry properly.

The baseball field has been leveled and reseeded. The once-abandoned tennis courts only need lines and nets. And a separate field-event area is near completion.

There's even a new scoreboard, complete with an advertisement for a nearby bank.

Phase 2 - new stands, locker rooms, and concessions - is set to begin in February.

On Wednesday night, the Public League boys' soccer championship was the first event held on the multi-purpose field. The turf was the topic of conversation among the players, coaches and parents.

"I've never played on anything like this," said Bartram senior Seleki Kamara. "I like it."

Vallas, Wuestner, Barton and other dignitaries were also on hand to mark the occasion.

"To see the faces of the kids when they step on the field - it's going to be great," Wuestner said a few days earlier. "They've seen what suburban schools have, and now they're going to have one to call their own."

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