Phantom Stang
05-04-2007, 08:40 AM
Trent to score high-quality turf for 6-man team
District planning $1.8 million athletic complex
By Sidney Levesque
May 3, 2007
The tiny Trent school district has some Gorilla-size plans.
The district is set to possibly be the first in the state to have artificial turf for a six-man football team and the first in the area to have a softball field with synthetic turf.
On Tuesday, the school board approved bids to build a nearly $2 million athletic complex with a football stadium, softball field and eight-lane track. If financing is finalized, the $1.8 million complex would be built behind the district's only school, built three years ago along Interstate 20.
''We're pretty pumped about it,'' said Kyle Jeffrey, the district's athletic coordinator and head coach of the Trent Gorilla football team.
He hopes the new facilities will draw more students into sports — and maybe to Trent. However, the district is not building a larger football field in the hopes that it will have enough students to field an 11-man football team.
Trent High School would need to more than double its 53-student enrollment to move up to the next sports classification level.
The new football stadium will have two press boxes and seating for 1,500. The district chose artificial turfs for the fields because water is an issue.
''With the droughts we have here, you don't know the water situation,'' Jeffrey said.
He hopes to draw playoff games to Trent, 24 miles west of Abilene.
''Hopefully, we'll get a lot of people to come into Trent and keep coming back,'' he said.
Students currently are being bused to the athletic facilities at the old school a half-mile away, which cuts into practice time. Track and field students must go to neighboring school districts because Trent only has a dirt track.
Families want students to be able to play sports at their own campus, said Greg Priddy, superintendent and principal of the 180-student Trent Independent School District.
Priddy said he will know in a day or two if financing for the athletic complex is finalized. If all goes well, construction will start in two or three weeks and will conclude around the time the 2007-08 school year begins.
Trent ISD is using $500,000 from its reserves to pay for the complex and is financing the rest with a 15-year loan that Priddy said will not affect the district's property tax rate. He said the district will use a portion of its general fund to repay the debt.
Trent voters passed a $5 million bond issue in 2002 to fund the new school.
© 1995-2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. and the Abilene Reporter-News.
All Rights Reserved.
District planning $1.8 million athletic complex
By Sidney Levesque
May 3, 2007
The tiny Trent school district has some Gorilla-size plans.
The district is set to possibly be the first in the state to have artificial turf for a six-man football team and the first in the area to have a softball field with synthetic turf.
On Tuesday, the school board approved bids to build a nearly $2 million athletic complex with a football stadium, softball field and eight-lane track. If financing is finalized, the $1.8 million complex would be built behind the district's only school, built three years ago along Interstate 20.
''We're pretty pumped about it,'' said Kyle Jeffrey, the district's athletic coordinator and head coach of the Trent Gorilla football team.
He hopes the new facilities will draw more students into sports — and maybe to Trent. However, the district is not building a larger football field in the hopes that it will have enough students to field an 11-man football team.
Trent High School would need to more than double its 53-student enrollment to move up to the next sports classification level.
The new football stadium will have two press boxes and seating for 1,500. The district chose artificial turfs for the fields because water is an issue.
''With the droughts we have here, you don't know the water situation,'' Jeffrey said.
He hopes to draw playoff games to Trent, 24 miles west of Abilene.
''Hopefully, we'll get a lot of people to come into Trent and keep coming back,'' he said.
Students currently are being bused to the athletic facilities at the old school a half-mile away, which cuts into practice time. Track and field students must go to neighboring school districts because Trent only has a dirt track.
Families want students to be able to play sports at their own campus, said Greg Priddy, superintendent and principal of the 180-student Trent Independent School District.
Priddy said he will know in a day or two if financing for the athletic complex is finalized. If all goes well, construction will start in two or three weeks and will conclude around the time the 2007-08 school year begins.
Trent ISD is using $500,000 from its reserves to pay for the complex and is financing the rest with a 15-year loan that Priddy said will not affect the district's property tax rate. He said the district will use a portion of its general fund to repay the debt.
Trent voters passed a $5 million bond issue in 2002 to fund the new school.
© 1995-2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. and the Abilene Reporter-News.
All Rights Reserved.