North Pike High School announced that it will be constructing a grass football field on its middle school campus after it rented Southwest Mississippi Community College's stadium in recent years.
The field will be home to the Jaguar football, soccer, cheer, dance and band programs.
Here are the details of what will be constructed:
- New 1,100 seat home-side bleachers with chair backs
- New home-side press box
- New fieldhouse/multipurpose facility
- New stadium lighting
- New concession stands and restrooms
- Security fencing
- New scoreboard, game clocks and sound system
- New field goal posts
- Parking lot upgrades in the surrounding area
The only part of the current field that will remain is the current home-side bleachers, which will be converted into visitor's seating.
Funding details for the project are as follows:
- Renewal of an expiring 3-million note generating $2.7 million
- Earmarking $500k from 16th Section Cash Balance, leaving a balance of $1.13 million for future use/emergencies
- Earmarking $764k from District Maintenance Fund Balance
- Earmarking $200k from current budget that has already been set aside
- No lease-purchase options or loans will be utilized. Upon completion, the project will be paid for in its entirety.
A statement from North Pike's Facebook page:
"In recent board meetings over the last several years, the North Pike School District Board of Trustees has accepted and approved several recommendations from Dr. Jay Smith, Superintendent, to invest millions of dollars into upgrading our facilities. All phases of these upgrades have been completed and paid in full.
Our next investment, which was approved at the February and March meetings, includes a complete renovation of Jaguar Field. The NPSD Board of Trustees and Dr. Smith are pleased to present to you the following renderings and information on our new Jaguar Field.
This roughly 10-month project is expected to begin in the coming weeks. Once completed, this will become the new Friday night home of Jaguar football, cheer, dance, and band. It will also serve as home to our soccer teams and junior high football team."
The renovations were approved in a board meeting Thursday and are expected to be done within 10 months.
The Jaguars also recently hired a new head coach, as they brought Paul Anderson over from his offensive coordinator duties at Parklane Academy.
