Robots help line football fields in Vermilion Parish

Technology is making life easier for coaches in Vermilion Parish.
Abbeville, Vermilion Catholic, and Erath each have their own Turk Tank robot that’s currently being used to paint the numbers, lines, and even designs on the football fields at the three schools.
The robots use GPS to precisely paint surfaces for football, soccer, baseball, softball, and track. What used to take a six-to-eight-man crew four hours to complete is now done by the robot that’s controlled by a tablet with one person monitoring it. That’s what sold VC head coach Broc Prejean on the idea.
“We have a crew that shows up every Thursday to work on the field,” Prejean said. “Our dads are phenomenal. But now, rather than spending four hours painting lines, they’re doing other things to dress up the field. They can pay more attention to the grass, get signage up, and things of that nature.
“To come out here as a one-man operation and get the practice field ready for the week makes it super attractive. When people see it work for the first time or see the lines at games, it’s hard to believe that a piece of technology made something that consistent, especially on inconsistent ground.”
Abbeville Head Football Coach Jonathan Zenon got his over the summer out of necessity. Breaux Bridge, the place he coached before coming to Abbeville, has an artificial playing surface. He never had to paint a field before.
“Breaux Bridge has a turf field,” Zenon said. “When we got here and noticed it was a grass surface, none of us have ever painted a day in our lives. We did some research and found Turf Tank. It’s actually cheaper for us this way than to pay someone to paint the field.”
Erath head coach Eric LeBlanc just got his Turf Tank a couple of weeks ago. So far, they’ve used it to paint the field before their week 10 game against Abbeville and on their practice field. He’s excited about the precision and versatility of the device.
“It makes the straightest lines we’ve ever seen,” LeBlanc exclaimed. “Between football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, track, and band, we have five locations with nine different field layouts. We simply select the field we want to paint with the ability to customize anything we want. Last week, we had it paint the senior football numbers in the end zone.”
With the precision of the Turf Tank and the amount of time and manpower it saves, it must cost a fortune, right?
According to Prejean, a few years ago the answer was yes. When he initially inquired about a Turf Tank, it was priced upwards of $40,000. Since then, the price has come down and the company moved to a subscription service rather than one upfront cost. The price, depending on the model, is around $5,500.
“When I first inquired about it a couple of years ago, it was priced more for a school district,” Prejean said. “Now, it’s a subscription model where you pay a yearly price. There are three different categories. Each one comes with a certain number of services and a certain amount of paint. Price wise, it’s fairly comparable to what we spend on paint.”
For LeBlanc, the value is in the time it saves.
“The number of hours we were spending after practices and on weekends setting up fields, our programs are all coming out ahead there,” LeBlanc said. “Our coaches and directors can use their time for other duties. On top of that, we no longer have to buy thousands of dollars of aerosol paint cans every year.”
Prejean has gotten close to his Turf Tank over the last 10 weeks. So close, in fact, he’s given the robot a name.
“We refer to ours as Joe Junior. Mr. Joe Broussard has been the lead on getting our field prepped all these years, so it’s our way of honoring him.”
According to Zenon, Abbeville’s robot name is “Prime Time Cat.”
Erath hasn’t quite settled on one name just yet.
“We’re stuck between a couple of names right now,” LeBlanc said. “We’re leaning towards Paintin’ Manning.”
NFL quarterback Payton Manning actually played on Bobcat Field in 1991. He was a sophomore quarterback for Newman High School, and they played Erath in the playoffs.