On Tuesday at a groundbreaking ceremony, Orchard Lake St. Mary's will make it official what's been a secret that's been pretty well known ever since last September: The school will install a red-colored turf at its football stadium, in the process becoming only the third college or high school in the country to have a red-colored surface. It took until last week for the school to get official approval, but the fundraising efforts and desire have been there for months now, so the county will be home to a navy blue turf at Oxford and a red turf at St. Mary's. All this begs the question. Will the trend of colored turfs continue? Or is it just a gimmick that certain schools don't want to be a part of. Kosmo hopes it doesn't become a trend. Yes, schools need turf surfaces to keep down maintenance costs and ensure multiple athletic teams can use the field. But there's a reason so many major league baseball stadiums went back to green seats when all the new stadiums were built in the past two decades. There's nothing like tradition, and green surfaces are what football is supposed to be played on. Can you imagine a yellow surface at Clarkston with blue yard markers? A brown surface with yellow yard markers at Rochester Adams? How about a black field turf with yellow yard markers at Bloomfield Hills Lahser. Or what about an orange surface with black yard markers at Brother Rice? Ugh. Kosmo cringes at that thought, but then again, he can't blame schools for wanting to market themselves. St. Mary's and Oxford should at least be credited for their thinking, because it's in part a brilliant marketing strategy. Look at the attention on those schools now. Also, can you imagine the youth teams in the community that'll want to play on those surfaces and the extra money that'll bring for the schools via rent? It's good thinking, but Kosmo just hopes it doesn't go too overboard and tradition for the most part is preserved.