The
new stadium
By Scott
Coffman
Magis staff writer
As the new school year is getting underway, most students
will notice the newest building edition to our school’s
athletic facilities.
Strake Jesuit is now the home to a brand new, state of the
art stadium, which boasts seating for 5,000, field turf, a
new press box, storage facilities, and plenty of new bathrooms.
The new stadium is part of the Vision 2008 program that plans
to build a new athletic center, as well as construct a student
union building.
The new stadium’s playing surface is not grass like
Jesuit’s old stadium. Jesuit’s new stadium has
field turf, which is the same kind of playing surface that
the Houston Texan’s use on their practice fields.
Field turf is basically a mix between astro turf and grass,
which creates the ideal playing surface for athletics. This
new playing surface is made of small synthetic blades of grass.
After this synthetic grass is laid many layers of sand and
small rubber pellets are brushed into it. This will shorten
the synthetic grass to a level that is suitable for athletics,
and give a feeling of having natural grass under your feet.
Since the stadium has been built with field turf, football
along with soccer and lacrosse games will be played in the
same stadium. Also, since the field turf doesn’t sustain
the same wear and tear that grass receives from constant use,
the new stadium can also be used as a practice field.
One of the most noticeable differences between our new stadium
and the old one is the amount of seating that our new stadium
has. Our new stadium can seat approximately 5,124 people;
as opposed to our old stadium which could only seat a fraction
of this many.
Another difference between the new stadium and the old one
is the lights. The lights of the new stadium, besides being
much brighter, are now behind the bleachers. This is very
nice because now spectators will not have a pole in their
view while trying to watch the game.
Since our entrance into the UIL, we are now subject to their
building codes. This means that the new stadium has to have
90 bathrooms. Sixty of these bathrooms will be women’s,
while the other thirty will be men’s.
These new bathrooms will be placed under the bleachers. These
bathrooms will be a much needed improvement over the old,
small bathrooms on the outside of the field house that used
to have to cope with hundreds of people who came to the games.
The stadium will also have an elevator that leads up to the
new press box. The elevator was included in the “must
haves” of the UIL building codes.
The new press box for the stadium is about five times larger
than our old press box. It also contains built-in air conditioning,
as well as plenty of separate rooms for coaches.
Under the bleachers, new storage facilities and two locker
rooms for the visiting teams have been constructed.
Surrounding the playing field is a brand new 8-lane track.
One of the last editions to the new stadium is a scoreboard.
The new scoreboard is much larger than our old one. It also
is an LED, which means that names can be programmed into the
scoreboard.
25-second clocks will also be placed next to the scoreboard.
The new stadium is the second stage in the Vision 2008 program
that began last spring with the construction of the new baseball
field.
According to the Vision 2008 report, Jesuit will eventually
have a new athletic center that will include a weight room
with male and female locker rooms, multi-purpose rooms (film/classes),
training room, storage/equipment rooms, multi-use basketball
court practice area, wrestling room, varsity locker room,
sub-varsity locker rooms, laundry room, Hall of Honor, racquetball
courts, coaches offices/conference rooms, and coaches dressing
room. Also, a Natatorium, an indoor practice facility and
tennis courts have been put on the facility upgrades list.
The Vision 2008 program doesn’t stop there. It also
plans on constructing a Student Union. This would include
a new cafeteria, offices for student activities, a chapel,
and the pastoral ministry offices.
The first Varsity football game that will be played in the
new stadium will be against St. Thomas on Friday, September
10 at 7:00. Hopefully, we will fill the stadium to capacity
on its opening night against our cross-town rivals.
Come out and support the Crusaders, and see the new stadium.
|
