With a name currently deeply linked to Orland Park, NFL player Michael Schofield III will see his name on a scoreboard at a village park exactly where future football players will hone their capabilities.

Schofield and his wife, Kendall Coyne Schofield, an Olympic gold medalist, have purchased naming rights for a portion of a redevelopment of Schussler Park in Orland Park, with the couple also agreeing to raise funds for an all-inclusive playground at the park.

The installation of two artificial turf playing fields are element of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Schussler. The 21-acre park, 14609 Poplar Road, has baseball and soccer fields along with a playground, tennis courts and sledding hill.

The park will be the house of 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.

A rendering of a scoreboard displaying the Michael Schofield III Sports Complicated as element of Schussler Park in Orland Park, which is undergoing renovation. (Village of Orland Park/HANDOUT)

He has played nine seasons in the NFL, and graduated from Carl Sandburg Higher College in Orland Park in 2009. He won a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos in 2016.

A Palos Heights native, Kendall Coyne Schofield graduated from Sandburg in 2010 and played baseball and softball as a youth. She won a gold medal in 2018 as element of the USA Olympic hockey group.

The couple has agreed to a 20-year, $25,000 partnership that will help the redevelopment of Schussler and calls for a scoreboard subsequent to the new sports fields, identifying them as the Michael Schofield III Sports Complicated.

There would also be life-size images of the Schofields, from youth to adulthood, “inspiring Orland Park youth to dream large,” according to the agreement, authorized in May well by the Orland Park Village Board.

Below the agreement, the Schofields will, by way of their Kendall &amp Michael Schofield Family members Foundation, raise income for the all-inclusive playground The foundation was made by the couple in 2019.

Improvement of the sports complicated will show youngsters “you can develop up about right here and you can make your dreams come correct,” Michael Schofield mentioned.

Coyne Schofield mentioned she hopes the sports complicated will aid “blossom so numerous kids’ dreams.”

A rendering of an all-inclusive playground planned for Schussler Park in Orland Park.
(Village of Orland Park) (Village of Orland Park)

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau mentioned getting Schussler as the devoted house of the Pioneers organization is an critical step, noting the youth sports group has been element of the village for a half-century.

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“There’s in no way been a field that has been devoted for football and constructed for football,” he mentioned. “It’s way as well extended coming.”

Along with two artificial turf fields on the east side of Schussler, the initial phase of redevelopment consists of the 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, for park renovations and the village has contracted separately with FieldTurf, for a expense of $1.two million, for the artificial turf fields, which are anticipated to be installed in late summer season or early fall.

Amongst V3′s project knowledge is the renovation, at a expense of $two.five million, of Orland Park’s John Humphrey Sports Complicated adjacent to the village’s Civic Center.

In July 2022, the Schofields took element in the opening of the Kendall Coyne Dream Large Park in the Misty Meadows subdivision in Palos Heights.

That park, as the one particular at Schussler is intended to be, complies with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and is intended to be all-inclusive.

mnolan@tribpub.com