The stars were out on Thursday night at Miami Edison High School as a new era of Red Raider football was unveiled.
As head coach Luther Campbell, Miami-Dade School Superintendent Albert Carvalho, Adidas dignitaries and headliners from the world of football made their way to see an amazing display of football, food and plenty of fun, huge news was indeed made.
From Deion Sanders and Chad Ochocinco to Von Miller, James White, Sony Michel, Aeneas Williams, Jason Whitlock, Marcellus Wiley and many others, Adidas showed off its newest project – and the football field in Little Haiti was alive with games and 7-on-7 teams.
With Edison High hosting a night of fun, thousands packed in to see Edison and the South Florida Express play several 7-on-7 games on this new turf along 62d Street – and the girls’ flag football teams from Edison and Barbara Goleman were also treated to an evening of fun and plenty of attention.
Decked out in Adidas gear, the teams took to the field and looked awesome as the objective – when lights and stands are installed in the near future - will be a showcase facility that is sure to add to a community that is looking to progress and grow.
“This is a tremendous thing that Adidas for this school and this community,” Edison Principal Leon Maycock said. “Our plans include playing our home games in this beautiful facility and giving this community something to be proud about.”
This all began last may when Adidas rolled out fresh consumer product filled with Primeblue material, a polyester made from recycled plastic intercepted from beaches and coastal communities, preventing it from polluting oceans.
Ahead of the Super Bowl in Miami, , the Primeblue material took on a different use, offering a sustainable choice for a new synthetic football field installation at Edison.
The Adidas partnership with Parley for the Oceans expanded to include a field maker to use 20 tons of the recycled plastic taken from beaches and coastal communities as the infill on the new field, replacing the reground rubber with the plastic-based substance.
Along with the Edison effort, Adidas also teamed with Parley to open new Parley Ocean Schools in Miami, that will last well beyond the Super Bowl.
“We are doing something with Parley beyond putting the raw material into our product,” says James Carnes, Adidas vice president of brand strategy. “We are getting people to realize this is a bigger topic we need to address.”
“Adidas has supported Parley Ocean Schools for years, and sports allows for a natural platform to show the importance of the issue,” Carnes says. “By offering Parley Ocean Schools, events that inform and educate about the issue of plastic waste filling, making the topic exciting and visceral and not heavy, but something with a solution that (people) can get excited about.”