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With a name currently deeply related with Orlando Park, NFL player Michael Schofield III will see his name on the scoreboard at the nation park exactly where future football players will hone their capabilities.
Schofield and his wife, Kendall Coyne Schofield, an Olympic gold medalist, have bought the naming rights for aspect of the redevelopment of Schussler Park in Orlando Park, and the couple has also agreed to raise funds for a extensive playground at the park.
The installation of two artificial turf fields is aspect of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Schussler. The 21-acre park, 14609 Poplar Road, has baseball and soccer fields, as nicely as a playground, tennis courts and a sledding hill.
The park will be residence to Orland Park Pioneer Football, and Michael Schofield, who most not too long ago played with the Bears, is a item of the Pioneer football organization.
He played nine seasons in the NFL and graduated from Carl Sandburg Higher College in Orlando Park in 2009. He won the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos in 2016.
A native of Palos Heights, Kendall Coyne Schofield graduated from Sandburg in 2010 and played baseball and softball as a youth. She won a gold medal in 2018 as aspect of the USA Olympic hockey group.
The pair agreed to a 20-year, $25,000 partnership that will help the redevelopment of Schussler and get in touch with for a scoreboard subsequent to the new athletic fields, identifying them as the Michael Schofield III Sports Complicated.
There would also be life-size pictures of the Schofields, from youth to adulthood, “inspiring the youth of Orland Park to dream massive,” according to an agreement authorized by the Orland Park Village Board in May well.
Beneath the agreement, the Schofields, by way of their Kendall & Michael Schofield Household Foundation, will raise dollars for the extensive playground. The foundation was developed by the couple in 2019.
The improvement of the sports complicated will show kids that “you can develop up right here and make your dreams come correct,” mentioned Michael Schofield.
Coyne Schofield mentioned she hopes the sports complicated will assistance “lots of children’s dreams blossom.”
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Orland Park Mayor Keith Peckau mentioned Schussler getting devoted residence to the Pioneers is an vital step, noting that the youth sports group has been a aspect of the village for half a century.
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“There has in no way been a field that was made for football and constructed for football,” he mentioned. “As well lengthy is as well lengthy.”
In addition to two artificial turf fields on the east side of Schussler, the initial phase of reconstruction contains a scoreboard, coaches’ box, bleachers, storage buildings and parking lot improvements.
The village board hired V3 Building of Woodridge, at a expense of $ten.7 million, to renovate the parks, and the village contracted separately with FieldTurf, at a expense of $1.two million, for the artificial turf fields, which expects to be installed in late summer time or early fall.
Amongst V3’s project knowledge is the $two.five million renovation of the John Humphrey Sports Complicated in Orland Park, adjacent to the village’s town center.
In July 2022, the Schofields participated in the opening of the Kendall Coine Dream Large Park in the Misty Meadows subdivision in Palos Heights.
That park, as the 1 in Schussler is supposed to be, complies with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and ought to be inclusive.
mnolan@tribpub.com