Contractors work on plumbing in the foundation of the new field house that is being built at Triad High School. The project is one of three major upgrades to the Cardinals’ athletic complex. (Photo submitted)
Triad, like every other school, has been battling the coronavirus this spring. Education was pushed outside the building and spring sports were cancelled, but the one thing the virus has not been able to slow has been the work on the school’s new athletic facilities.
“Everything is on track,” said Triad Athletic Director Logan Dunn. “There has been no real negatives from the virus,” he added.
This past November members of the community voted in favor of a bond and a levy that would update the football field, add a new field house and a new eight-lane track.
Phase one of the project is currently underway and started in March with a hopeful deadline of Sept. 4, in time for the Cardinal football team’s first home game.
Phase one of the project includes a new grass football field and field house. The projects bids came in under the original budget of $1,625,600 allowing project engineer Chis Widener to allocate money to other parts of the project.
School and project officials have been meeting on Mondays as a way of keeping on top of the project, according to Dunn.
“There is no hitch at all,” Dunn said. “It has allowed me to focus on the extras.”
Some of those extras will be the new video boards that will be brought into the stadium and gymnasium.
“We have partnered with Nevco for video and I am ordering new goal post,” Dunn said. “It is exciting.”
Even with the project on schedule Dunn said the first time that any student-athlete will use the new facilities will be on the night of the Cardinals first home football game.
“We want to make this a special fall,” he added. “With a new facility and coach we want this to be something special for the school and the community.”
Phase two of the project will be the installation of the new track, which is not scheduled for competition until spring of 2021.
When all is said and done Dunn believes the new complex will be something that rivals other schools the size of Triad.