PECOS The Pecos community took the next big step in the construction of the new high school football stadium with its groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
Last August, the 47-year-old Eagle Stadium at Rotary Field was deemed not structurally safe for fans just a few weeks before the start of the new football season.
By September, the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District Board of Trustees approved the building of a new stadium for the district.
Work began in early November with demolition last month, the initial foundation work started on the new stadium which will retain its name of Eagle Stadium at Rotary Field.
“We’re absolutely thrilled about this new stadium and getting it up,” PBTISD Superintendent Brent Jaco said. “We’re going to be the envy of West Texas with this new stadium and it’s going to be exciting for our kids to play in this stadium but we’re also going to host other events. We’re looking forward to football season, marching band contests, soccer, track and field events taking place here.”
The new stadium will be a multi-purpose facility that will host football and soccer games as well as band competitions and track meets.
Additionally, the current track and turf will be resurfaced and made purple.
The new stadium will seat 4,000 spectators which is slightly less than what the old stadium seated which was slightly over 5,000.
“We’re tight on parking here but we worked closely with the city and with what we had and we’re going to make it a home atmosphere where it’ll feel packed,” Jaco said.
A press release from the school district said that the funding for the new stadium is not a project from the 2021 bond. Back in May 2021, the Board of Trustees approved the allocation of funds for other facilities needing work in PBTISD.
Jaco says the new stadium is expected to cost around $17.5 million. The funding from the stadium came from the board of trustees.
“The board set aside some fund balance money that we had to take care of the stadium and some other capital-need projects,” Jaco said. “Pecos has a long-range facility plan to replace every facility that we have. The average age of our facilities was 65 years old. So we were in desperate need of modernizing and updating our facilities so this was a step that the board took to ease the burden on tax payers.”
The stands will be built on the original site where the old ones stood.
Tuesday’s ceremony took place in the parking lot next to the construction site.
Among the high school student athletes that were present, the ceremony also included the PBTISD Board of Trustees, athletics coaches, including new athletic director and football coach Scott Williams as well as middle school campus administrators.
Jaco says they hope to have the construction of the new stadium completed by August in time for the 2022 football season.
“This is incredible for us and for the community and for all the athletes that will use this stadium,” Williams said who was just recently named the new athletic director and football coach at Pecos. “This is a big day. It shows that this community supports the athletics here which is from my standpoint as a coach and athletic director, is huge. This is going to be a constant reminder of the love that this community has for its academics and athletes.”
Sophomore Carlos Ramirez, who plays linemen for the Eagle football team is one of the many athletes eager to get to play in a new stadium.
“We’re really excited,” Ramirez said. “It’s a new experience for the fans and for the players. It’s going to have a bigger variety of seats and everything.”
During the ceremony, Jaco talked about the history of the old stadium.
“The first incarnation of Eagle stadium was completed in 1937 as Eagle Stadium at Rotary Field. Roughly 40 years later, the second incarnation of Eagle Stadium came and as we all know the stands were concrete and the metal structure would last another 45 years.”
He also thanked the community and the fans for their support.
“Pecos is a community where the residents bleed purple and gold for their Eagles,” Jaco said. “There’s a personal reason why. You can ask any fan their first memory of setting foot at Eagle Stadium and they can tell you without hesitation. They can tell you when the stands were painted purple and when the state-of-the-art scoreboard was installed. I’m very proud that this stadium will continue to be a beacon of memories for the Eagles.”
After the ceremony, Jaco talked about some of the other differences between the new stadium and the old one.
“We’ll have aluminum bleachers but we’ll also have a state-of-the-art press box,” Jaco said. “It’ll be a two-story press box that’ll be the centerpiece of the stadium and new restrooms and concessions. We’ll also have an emergency first aid area too. It’s going to be better all around. It’ll be more modernized.”
The construction and design of the new stadium are also being done by PBTISD partners VLK Architects and BTC Construction.
Both are already doing projects of the May 2021 bond.
