Athletic facility upgrades for the Kosciusko School District are continuing to progress.
Broken down into three phases, the upgrades are set to enhance the sports of football, baseball, cheerleading, volleyball, basketball, soccer, powerlifting, tennis, archery, fast-pitch softball, track, and band. These projects were budgeted using revenue from local, intermediate, state, federal, and 16th section sources. Particularly, federal ESSER-III funding provided financial support to make these improvements.
Superintendent Billy Ellzey provided The Star-Herald with an update on projects that have been completed and an outlook of what upgrades remain.
“Progress on the athletics and activities upgrades continue to move forward with several projects that will benefit our students over many years to come,” said Ellzey.
One of the first projects listed in Phase One was to construct a physical education and health facility. The facility’s location will be near the current KHS football and practice fields, and it will include two classrooms for health and physical education classes. A weight training area will also be included in the facility for use by all students within the school district.
Ellzey said dirt work has been completed on the facility and is now currently in the process of being built. The center is expected to be completed by January of 2023.
Air conditioning units have been installed in the field house at Kosciusko Junior High School. Junior high and high school gyms are also slated to receive new air conditioning units that will be installed this summer.
The project to turf the high school football field and create a new practice field has already begun to make headway. Ellzey said the project is expected to be completed in early August. If the turf field has not been completed in time for Kosciusko’s first home football game against Yazoo County on August 26, 2022, Ellzey said the district has a contingency plan to play football games at Holmes Community College. The football team’s second home game of the season will not be until September 16, 2022, when the Whippets take on Choctaw County.
Work on the high school softball and baseball hitting facilities has entered the initial phase. The softball program will have a new hitting facility constructed, and the baseball hitting facility will be enclosed. The superintendent said a survey of the area has been approved by the school board so that architects can begin drawing plans for upgrades to these facilities.
Looking forward, Ellzey said the next phases in the upgrades include renovations to the high school soccer field house and basketball dressing rooms, along with resurfacing the high school track.
“These upgrades will allow our student athletes to have some of the best facilities in 4A in the state,” said Ellzey. “Something we can all be proud of for many years.”
