We had hoped to run a story in our Saturday edition about the field at Tiger Stadium being ripped up.

We had hoped it would be because the Tigers ran up and down the field scoring touchdowns at will in their preseason jamboree with Hillcrest-Evergreen High School and Carver High School.

In today’s paper we do in fact have a story about the field at Tiger Stadium being ripped up, but it wasn’t the Tigers that did it.

Instead, five teenagers decided it would be fun to drive a vehicle out onto the field and spin their tires on the turf, cutting deep trenches in the field a week before Greenville High School was set to open its season at home against Anniston High School.

Their actions put the Tigers’ home opener in danger.

It took hours of extra work by the City of Greenville employees to get the field back in shape for Friday’s game, which will be the first of many Fridays this season that we gather inside the stadium and watch our community’s football players, cheerleaders and band members perform.

Those athletes and band members spend countless hours preparing for the opportunity to perform in Tiger Stadium.

But football aside, the stadium is a centerpiece of our community.

In May we’ll fill its seats and watch the Class of 2013 march across the field.

The stadium serves as the host for a number of events each year, ranging from the city’s Fourth of July celebration to the Butler County Special Olympics, which bring our community together.

There are those that will say that this is just kids being kids.

We couldn’t disagree more.

It’s a crime.

The five teenagers, who were caught in the act by the Greenville Police Department, intentionally destroyed the field at Tiger Stadium.

We hope the city will follow through with its promise to hold the offenders responsible for their actions.

We also sincerely hope that all five of the teenagers involved learned a lesson about respecting the property of others and the community that they live in.