NEW PALESTINE — Long lines at Shepler Field’s bathrooms and concession stands and muddy Friday night football might be problems of the past, New Palestine High School officials say.
The New Palestine school board approved an $857,652 bid to upgrade the high school’s athletic facilities earlier this year, and the project should be finished by the end of the summer, said community relations director Wes Anderson. Turf will be installed at Shepler Field in time for next football season, along with expanded concession areas and bathrooms in the athletic complex.
A turf field is a huge upgrade for the school system as a whole, Anderson said, and not just for the school’s athletic teams. In addition to eliminating upkeep costs that a grass field requires, a turf surface will afford the school more opportunities to use that space for a variety of activities, Anderson said.
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“It’s really a great internal investment for our sports teams, PE teachers and really our community,” Anderson said.
This was a community-driven project, with the intent to provide service beyond the school’s football team, said athletics director Al Cooper. The multi-purpose facility will be able to house numerous athletic events, to include soccer matches. The space will additionally be available to the marching band, physical education classes and other classroom activities, Cooper said.
“It’s just kind of a win-win for everybody,” Cooper said. “Currently, we only use that facility for 90 to 100 hours a year. Moving forward, we’re looking at more than 1,200 hours.”
“I can go on and on when it comes to the multi-use opportunities we’ll have with the new facility,” he added.
Turf installation should take about six weeks, with the project ending sometime in July, Cooper said. The football team will hopefully have a chance to get used to making transition from grass to turf before their first game this fall.
Another priority of the project is to add close to 1,000 seats in the south endzone bleachers, which tend to get populated significantly during home football games, Cooper said.
“This will give patrons a nice, cozy area down in the red zone, and we’ll have less of the crowd standing around the fence,” he said.
The expansion of the facility’s bathrooms and concession stand areas was another top priority for the project, Anderson said. There was rarely enough space for all of their fans on Friday nights, but the growth should mitigate the traffic issues, he said.
Increasing the available space should improve restroom flow by about 400 percent, he said.
“We’re going to get people out of the concession line and in the stands watching the games,” Anderson said.
After construction on the turf, concession stands and restrooms is complete, the school board might begin exploring the possibility of adding new locker rooms as well, Anderson said. The school board may be open to additional improvements to the athletic complex at a later date.
“We have a general vision of what we want that area to look like in the long term,” Anderson said. “But with where we’re at now, we’re already looking at big improvements.”
