The KSD Athletics department presented a wide-reaching, three-phase facilities upgrade proposal to the school board during the board’s Monday night meeting.The development of the plan came after Jonathan Powers addressed a prior board meeting, asking the district to invest in the future of the district athletics program. Powers joined Athletic Director Macy Wilbanks and football Head Coach Casey Orr in the presentation of the proposal the group developed.“I wanted to come back and say thank you. It is amazing to me that you took this seriously,” he said. “We’re asking that you’re very bold.”According to Wilbanks, the group met with head coaches of every sport to gather their wish lists for facility additions or improvements, and then set about developing a plan that would address as much as possible in a single comprehensive proposal.“We really worked hard to hit as many wants and needs as we could in one proposal,” Wilbanks told The Star-Herald. “We want it to serve as many students as possible and put the district in the forefront to attract and retain students, coaches, and teachers. This would put us in the elites in District 4A.”The centerpiece of the proposal is the installation of a turf field in the current football stadium, turning it from a football game field into a facility that can be utilized by football, soccer, band, and other sports for both practice and game play. Even baseball and softball teams could use it when the diamonds are unusable following significant rain.“If we can build a Whippets turf field, everything else just kind of fits. At first, we asked who else in 4A has a turf field. Then, we decided to ask, ‘Why can’t we be the first?’” she told the board. “This would not just make us catch up but be ahead of everybody for the first time in a while.”Orr sees the potential of the project as a unifier for the entirety of Kosciusko athletic programs — and as a revenue generator. “This is a turf athletic field, not just for football,” he said. “It ties all the sports together.”With the upgrade, Orr said Kosciusko could bring in users such as the peewee football league, for band competitions, and for football jamborees.“There is money to be made that can be put back into all of our athletics,” he said.If that single major project can be completed, the variety of other facility additions and improvements become feasible, according to Wilbanks. The next major project on the list is the construction of a new field house on the back portion of the current practice football field. It would contain the football program but also expanded weightlifting facilities for the use of all athletic programs. Other projects in the plan include installing air conditioning/heating in the junior high and high school gymnasiums, resurfacing the track at the high school, extending and upgrading the KHS gym floor and replacing the bleachers, and replacing and upgrading lighting at the outdoor athletic fields.Superintendent Billy Ellzey told the board that expected ESSER III federal funding could be used to construct any of the facilities that house students for credit if the plan is approved. The challenge in doing so, however, might be obtaining materials to complete construction by the deadline for expenditure of those funds.“We want to be bold,” said Ellzey, “but the timeframe will be hard to answer since we don’t know about getting materials.”The turf field project — likely be the largest single expenditure — would not be eligible for ESSER funding, meaning the district would have to find another way to pay for it.“We want to make a splash. We want to invest in our community, but we can’t take away from what we already do,” said the superintendent.In the end, the board authorized Ellzey and the athletics department to engage an architect to draw up preliminary plans for the overall proposal and develop cost estimates to bring back before the board. “We’re excited about what could come forward for our athletics. This was our first run at an overall plan. Now we need to work with the architect to figure out what we can and cannot do and what the costs might be,” said Wilbanks following the meeting. “We need to try to form a real plan around that proposal.”The following documents detail the three-phased plan and the proposed improvements listed by sport:
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