After being approved at a recent Board meeting, the area behind Monticello Trails Middle School is currently being altered to create space for an additional two practice football fields and to find a more effective use of the available space.
“They wanted to use the space out there in a better way,” head football coach Joel Applebee said. “It allows for a larger number of kids we can have practicing there for football and track too. Basically, the reason we’re doing this is for a better use of space.”
The space is currently occupied by one practice football field and was previously occupied by the baseball team’s batting cages.
According to district director of activities Roland Van Wyhe, one of the goals of the renovation was to get the activities condensed into a smaller area.
“It will organize our field events in one area where it can be supervised at the same time,” Van Wyhe said. “Also, it will provide two official-sized football fields to practice on.”
Before this, the practice fields available to the football team were not full size. Also, Van Wyhe said that one of the fields will be available to the middle school football teams for games if deemed necessary. This would prevent scheduling conflicts with events occuring on the high school football field.
Additionally, the shot put area will be modified to allow for two more areas to be created. However, this will not occur until after track season to avoid interfering with the practices.
Another change that will occur throughout the transition is the relocation of the batting cages. The current two cages have already been taken down and will be replaced by two new cages.
Each of the cages will be placed alongside one of the foul lines on the baseball field, one cage per line on the field.
“It’ll be more beneficial for us because it’s actually closer to our field,” head baseball coach Jeff Strickland said.
Strickland and assistant baseball coach Dustin Stinnett also said that this will restrict the amount of space available to the baseball team but also agreed that they just want the season to arrive and are largely unconcerned with the changes.
“We’re just ready to play baseball,” Stinnett said.
Senior varsity baseball player Jacob Spring agrees with Stinnett but also acknowledges that practices will be affected.
“We’ll definitely have to make adjustments,” Spring said. “It’s not going to be what it was in the past, but I think we will be alright.”
According to Applebee, this decision will help not only the football team but also the baseball and track teams.
“It was a conservative effort by everybody to help everybody out,” Applebee said.
Strickland agrees with Applebee in the fact that this is a group effort.
“Overall, I think it’s going to be beneficial for everybody,” Strickland said. “The utilization of space we have is going to be better.”
