Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Flanked by cheerleaders, former longtime Fort Thomas High School football coach Wil Hinton cuts the ribbon at the dedication of The Fort’s new artificial turf field as Wil Hinton Field.
By Jon Johnson
FORT THOMAS – The Fort Thomas Unified School District celebrated the inaugural game on its new artificial turf field on Friday night and dedicated it as Wil Hinton Field after The Fort’s former longtime football coach.
Wil Hinton graduated from Fort Thomas High School and was a football coach at The Fort for 33 years, with most of them serving as head coach.
“I cannot express the love and gratitude that I feel because of this honor,” Hinton said. “I’m such a blessed person – a blessed soul – to be with you tonight. And I could not be here tonight if it was not for you people in the stands.”
The artificial turf changeout was made possible by a grant from the Water Conservation Grant Fund of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA). The fund approved $200 million in funding for 189 applications across the state, with 42 of those projects being turf removal. Four applications worth $2.51 million were awarded for Graham County.
Greenlee County Supervisor Richard Lunt is one of eight voting members on WIFA’s Board of Directors. He was on hand at the field’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday and said the new artificial turf at the high school,l and a field at Fort Thomas Elementary School, and Mount Turnbull Elementary’s outdoor amphitheater will save the school district nearly 6 million gallons of water per year.
“Superintendent Hawkins, school board members, I applaud your forward-thinking approach to saving water for your community and the state of Arizona,” Lunt said.
“A program like the water conservation grant only works when we have groups like yours who are willing to work to find innovative ways to save water,” Lunt said. “And in the process, you create a beautiful facility that your community will be able to enjoy for years.”
Fort Thomas Superintendent Shane Hawkins – who once was an assistant coach under Hinton – emceed the event and said the school district’s ultimate goal is to create the most successful school on a reservation in the state. (While technically Fort Thomas is just east of the San Carlos Apache Reservation the majority of its students are from the reservation.)
“We do things to help children,” Hawkins said.
Fort Thomas School Board Member Chris Duncan also spoke at the event in both the Apache language and English and encouraged the youth to keep the Apache language alive and thriving.
Coach Wil Hinton thanked all his assistants over the years and named them in his speech which also praised all the parents of student-athletes and their sacrifices.
“This is just an honor that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Hinton said.
