A new source of pride for the East Side

The selection of an architect for the new Cedar Shoals fieldhouse is set to take place this month with hopes of breaking ground this summer.

As part of a renovation funding package that was first approved for both district high schools in the fall of 2019 that included new tracks, each school was allocated money for stadium renovations. While Clarke Central opted to use its funds to install an artificial turf field, Cedar Shoals decided to upgrade its athletic facilities with a new fieldhouse. 

The fieldhouse is expected to include locker rooms, a banquet space, a weight room and trainer facilities with proximity to the outdoor athletic fields.

“It is a big inconvenience for our athletes and referees to have to walk from the gym where they change down to the fields,” Principal Antonio Derricotte said. “From a safety standpoint, we needed a closed-in environment closer to the athletic fields in case we have to move athletes quickly because of severe weather. There was a need to put something in the area that would best serve all the surrounding athletic fields so the fieldhouse will serve as an opportunity to bring everything together in a one-stop shop.”

Athletic Director L’Dreco Thomas sees the fieldhouse as not only beneficial for the athletes but also for physical education classes. 

“Oftentimes teams and PE (physical education) classes will have to split into two or three groups in order to use the locker and weight rooms because our current facilities are just not big enough,” Thomas said. “These new spaces will allow us to accompany more people and will give us facilities that are better suited for our school’s needs.”

Senior James Maddox, a weight training student, says the current weight room often gets overcrowded which can increase the risk of injury.

“The weight room generally feels cramped which sometimes makes me nervous of others lifting around me,” Maddox said. “One weight dropped by a person could land on another student’s foot which can lead to a really bad injury. Certain exercises like power cleans require more room than others so being overcrowded is dangerous in this regard.”

Sophomore wide receiver and track athlete Devin Hester has seen similar scenes during football workouts.

“When the whole team shows up for training, the weight room is often too small for our whole group so we have to lift in waves which can make our workouts take longer than usual,” Hester said. 

GROUP WORKOUT: Weight training students do push-ups on the floor of the weight room. James Maddox, a senior weight training student, believes that students are more engaged in learning when they are comfortable with their environment. “Having updated facilities are important as they help with school morale, student efficiency and student ability,” Maddox said. Photo by Melanie Frick.

Derricotte says the project has taken inspiration from another Athens area high school — a region opponent at that.

“When I was in my former district, we were in the region with North Oconee (High School) when it was first built and the way that they phased out their projects instead of building everything at once was really smart,” Derricotte said. “Our fieldhouse will mirror a lot of what North Oconee’s field house has, so their building provided some inspiration for us.”

The initial budget for the project was around $3 million of Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) funding but with increased resource cost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of the project is expected to be closer to $4.5 million.

“The economic downturn that we are seeing right now with pandemic related issues makes it hard to get materials and makes them more expensive which played a factor in delaying the project,” Derricotte said. “Now it seems like all of the pieces are coming together but we have to be realistic that some of the items needed will be delayed.”

Thomas expects the project to resume in the next few weeks.

“We are in the process of selecting the architect which should be finished this month,” Thomas said. “The board then has to approve the decision which should allow us to break ground in June. It will then take about eight months to complete the fieldhouse after we break ground.”

While the fieldhouse will allow Cedar Shoals to upgrade its facilities, the existing weight rooms and locker rooms will still be used. 

“A lot of people don’t realize that we renovated the old gym recently to open up more storage space for our athletic teams,” Derricotte said. “We are trying to make sure all athletes have room to practice and that we don’t overuse any space, which prevents wear and tear.”

Derricotte believes that upcoming additions to CSHS facilities will be especially beneficial for female athletes and students.

“A few years ago, we bought new weights for the weight room that were specifically designed for our female lifters and we will try to make sure to bring in more diverse equipment for the new weight room as well,” Derricotte said. “People often forget that weight training is a class, not just an afterschool program that is specifically for athletes. We have to make sure that we have what we need from an academic standpoint which will be a big benefit for all of our students.”

The project is also about installing pride in the East Side community. 

“It’s a recruiter in that it gives younger kids the mindset that people care about the East Side community and it gets them excited to be a Jaguar,” Thomas said. “It also gives the alumni who have poured a lot of work into our program over the years something that they can take pride in.”

Hester believes that having new facilities shows students in the area that Cedar Shoals cares about their academic and athletic development.

“The fieldhouse will let students know that we have all the resources that they need to grow as a person and a player which can help them get to where they want to be,” Hester said. “Being able to show them (incoming students) all the new facilities that we have will get them more interested in the school and help bring pride to our athletic programs.” 

The fieldhouse comes at an important milestone in the school’s history.

“We are about to celebrate our 50th anniversary as a school this fall so this is just another way to bring together alumni and show that we care about our students,” Derricotte said.

Jacob Weiszer

Senior Jacob Weiszer is the Sports Editor for BluePrints Magazine. Weiszer is interested in pursuing a career in business or pre-law. Outside of school, Weiszer enjoys playing soccer and spending time with his friends. This year he hopes to cover a broad range of stories related to sports and the entire Cedar community. Weiszer also looks forward to working with his fellow editors and staff reporters to develop meaningful stories. The thing Weiszer enjoys the most about being a member of the journalism staff is being able to collaborate with his peers to cover important issues in the community.

Avatar photo