By D. Mark Mitchell
Sports Editor
OHS Construction Report and Review
The front parking lot at OHS is now paved and numbered. Construction continues on the south side of the school. This includes the area next to the old gym, cafeteria, half of Main Street and the last wing that was next to the kitchen. A temporary wall has been put up so students cannot see the construction and, hopefully, this will keep noise and distraction to a minimum. The contractors are working every day to make sure the project stays on schedule.
The area that is housing the portable classrooms is complete and ready for students.
This area is in front of the Sam Mason Track. The “Village” or portable classroom area will have an office with an assistant principal and other staff from OHS.
The students will be served lunch in the old gym.
This football season will be the last in the original “Bulldog Stadium.” When the season is over, the stadium will undergo many changes. The grass field will be replaced with new turf. The south end zone will not have a parking lot or stands; this area will be used for the new athletic building. This building will have a dressing room equipped with over 100 lockers and showers, coaches’ offices, meeting rooms, an indoor practice facility, new weight room, film rooms, training rooms, equipment room and many other facilities for athletics. The building will be two stories high and the team will exit the building on the north side when going to Bulldog Stadium.
This will free up the existing athletic facility to house female sports. We will then be one of the few schools that has an athletic facility specifically for girls athletics. The existing building will be renovated and adapted to fit the unique needs of female sports.
Back to the stadium: the existing entrance, concession stands and ticket offices will be torn down and a new entrance built. The new entrance will add more room for fans, a larger concession area, bigger bathrooms (not just bigger, but more capacity) and modern ticket offices.
Inside the stadium, the hedges will be removed. Aluminum bleachers will be installed on top of the cement stands on the home side, Additional seats will be added on both sides of the field. A new state-of-the-art scoreboard will be added. There will be a handicapped seating area. People will be able to walk to and from their seats without interfering with people watching the game. The old field house will be remodeled for use by visiting teams.
When the project is complete, Opelika will have a football stadium that will be fan friendly, modern and up-to-date. I look forward to this day!
Meet the Bulldogs
The Opelika All-Sports Booster Club will hold the annual “Meet the Bulldogs” at Bulldog Stadium on Aug. 21, at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to this free event.
We will introduce the cheerleaders, band, volleyball team, cross country team, the OMS football teams, ninth-grade football team and the OHS varsity football team.
Opelika Bulldog items will be on sale. We will have Opelika flags, Opelika signs, Under Armour polo shirts and T-shirts, caps, tags and many other items that you can purchase to support Opelika High School athletics. The Booster Club will also be selling memberships for $30. You will receive a “Bulldog” car tag when you join. We encourage all Bulldog fans to attend Tuesday night’s “Meet the Bulldogs” event.
Pre-Season Game
OHS will play Enterprise next Thursday, Aug. 23, at 7 p.m. at Troy Stadium in Troy.
This will be a practice game and will not count on the teams’ season records.
You can hear the broadcast of this pre-season game on WKKR 97.7 KICKER FM or on the web at www.kickerfm.com. This is the Opelika broadcast team: I (D.Mark Mitchell) call the play-by-play, Jeff Sasser provides the color, Geter Meadows is our on the field/sidelines reporter and Tyler Pigg handles the statistics as well as the halftime show.
This is the 33rd year that I have broadcast the Opelika athletics, and I can hardly wait for the season to begin!