By D. Mark Mitchell
Sports Editor
Construction at the OHS campus is in full swing. Trucks, construction equipment and workers are making progress every day.
Dr. Mark Neighbors explained the plans for the renovations.
The crew is working on the front parking lot now.
The old lot has been removed and crews are grading the area for the new parking lot which will be larger than the old one.
Workers are building a temporary kitchen in the back. School lunches will be prepared in this building until the new cafeteria is built.
This temporary kitchen will be converted to a maintenance facility after the new kitchen is finished and in use.
Workers are also getting the portable classrooms ready for students. These units are in front of the Sam Mason track. The area will include an office, walkways and will be equipped with everything needed for teachers to teach students the same way they did inside the old school building.
The next step will be to close off half of Main Street. The north side will closed off so workers can start building the new school.
Lunch will be served in the old gym while construction begins on the new cafeteria. After the north side of the school is finished, workers will shift to the south side of Main Street.
Construction will begin to renovate Bulldog Stadium at the end of the 2012 football season. Plans call for an athletic facility in the south end zone. This facility will include a new weight room, dressing rooms, coaches’ offices, conference rooms and a training area.
The facility will be built on the site of the north parking lot and will allow the football team to exit directly to Bulldog Stadium.
The stadium’s entrance will be new. We will have new restrooms, ticket office and concession stands.
Additional seating will be added on both the visiting side and the home side. Aluminum seating will be added to the home side. Fans will no longer sit directly on the concrete stands. The existing visiting locker room will also be renovated .
The existing athletic department located on the south side of the school by the track will be remodeled and converted to a female athletic facility.
Opelika will be one of the first schools in the area to have a female athletic area.
The offices and locker rooms next to the old gym will be torn down and rebuilt with more space and locker rooms.
When the construction is completed, Opelika High School will be a state of the art school equipped with all the necessary equipment and infrastructure to allow our students to excel in the classroom.
Summer Workouts
The football team competed in two seven-on-seven camps this week. Coach Blackmon and his staff are working the players out early in the morning.
The basketball teams have been playing in games around the area. Each team has seven play dates. What that means is the AHSAA allows teams to play games on seven days in the summer. The teams normally play three or four games each day.
Both boys and girls teams hope to play in at least 21 games over the seven day period.
The baseball team finished their seventh day of games last week.
Coach Scott Sullivan is in his first summer as head coach. He was hired at the beginning of the 2011 school year.
Booster News
The Opelika All-Sports Booster club is still enrolling corporate sponsors for the 2012-13 school year.
Businesses or families can purchase three different sponsorship packages.
The prices range from $500 to $1,200.
The plans include football tickets, ad in football program, parking pass, passes to every sporting event at the Middle School and High School.
If you are interested please call me ( D.Mark Mitchell at (334) 319-0467) or call the main office at OHS, (334) 745-9715.
Dixie Baseball and Softball All-Stars
The All-Star season is starting.
The Dixie Youth teams start tonight. The Machine-pitch, Minor and Major league teams are starting tournaments this weekend and next weekend.
The Dixie Youth Minors will play in Beulah tonight and this weekend.
The Dixie Youth Majors will host the District tournament beginning June 29 at West Ridge Park.
The Junior Dixie Boys (13-year-olds) are hosting the state tournament on July 20 at Harrelson Field at West Ridge Park.
Nine teams from around the state will be competing for a trip to the World Series.
The Opelika Dixie Boys (14-year-olds) will host the District tournament beginning on July 6, at Harrelson Field at West Ridge Park.
The Dixie Softball Ponytails, 11 and 12-year-olds, have announced their all-star team: Chelsea Carr, Tabi Hadaway, Landon Delamar, Elizabeth Weygand, Mynaja Nelms, Natalie Simpkins, Sarah Kent Kyser, McKensie Barnes, Katherine Dudley, Megan Cook, Tatum Cannon and Tanner Cannon.
The Belles Softball team, 13 through 15-year-olds all-stars: Jada Moss, Tamia O’Neal, Ally Horniman, Talisha Frazier, Kelsey Lee, Jamie Powers, Kimberly May, Emmie Levins, Tatum Jones, Alexis Sydnor, Tadesja Veasley and Jamie Good-Martin.