Q and A: Field House
Started in May 2022, Cedar Shoals’ new athletic field house was unveiled at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. The two-story, 16,800-square-foot building contains coach offices, training facilities, locker rooms and a banquet hall. Funded by the SPLOST stadium renovation package approved in the fall of 2019, the field house had an estimated cost of $5.5 million. Blueprints staff talked to Physical Education Department Chair Takesha Wall and Athletic Director L’Dreco Thomas about what can be expected from the new field house.
Q: How does the fieldhouse in general benefit the athletes of Cedar Shoals?
Thomas: First of all, if you just look at the building, it should give us something to be proud of, and it’s something to take pride in. It should be something that people should look forward to having access to. ‘Hey, this is ours.’ This is something that can be appealing to someone who may be on the fence of wanting to play a sport.
Q: How does the fieldhouse inspire students and athletes?
Thomas: What we’re doing should encourage people to know that we’re really trying to invest in athletics. You see a weight room of that size and that magnitude. All of our athletes have access to the weight room. At some point, to train in a facility of that size with the equipment that we have, that should be something that kids should get excited about. People should at least look at it and see what being an athlete can mean to them personally. I’m just happy our county was able to give us something over here on the East side that we can be proud of.
Q: Can all sports use the fieldhouse?
Thomas: Now, we can’t house every sports team in that building. As far as lockers, we don’t have locker room space but for a few teams at a time. And then there’s the meeting room, the banquet room, so there’s a lot you can do there. Coaches are welcome to hold whatever they want to hold in there. It gives people optimism just to see what we do have here and see what we have to offer. And then banquets, instead of having to go off campus and rent this facility and rent this building and pay, you can hold it right here and we have a little small kitchen as well.
Q:How does having the new field house space benefit athletes?
Wall: I’ve had classes of 40-plus. I know football has had a class of 60. The old weight room was just not sufficient. There were 10 stations so if you had 60 kids, we couldn’t get through sets quickly and safely. You’re on top of each other trying to lift heavy weights. Being in the fieldhouse, we’re able to get a lot more done. There’s more machines and just a sense of pride from athletes. It’s new, it’s fresh, so that alone is helpful as well.
Q: What does the new weight room have?
Wall: We have 15 or 16 stations. We have more hyperextension machines, a leg press machine, turf and jump boxes. There’s so much that we can do that we weren’t able to do before. We didn’t have the proper equipment.
Q: What have your students said about the new weight room?
Wall: They like it. I think they like the fact that they can go there. It’s a privilege to be a student athlete, having that pride of your own space you can use.
Q: What are you most proud of?
Wall: We’ve kind of always been under the shadow of Clarke Central. That’s one of the biggest things I think. To be competitive, especially in our region, we definitely need better facilities. It starts with facilities and better equipment, so I love it. I can do so much more that I wanted to do in the past but just didn’t have the ability. Also, I’m seeing a lot of strength gains in the females and I know they’ve seen it in football, so it’s working.
Q: It was stated that the weight rooms would be stocked with more diverse and specialized equipment, what did this include?
Wall: We’ve got jump boxes and more resistance bands. I would like to see a few more small dumbbells just for the sake of the girls. We got the leg press machines, the hyperextension machines and the sled pulls. We have more equipment than we had, but still not everything that we need and could use.
Q: What do you want players and athletes to know about the facility?
Wall: Take pride in it, because I’ve been here a long time. Take pride in knowing that you can go in there; it’s there for us to get better. Athletics can help build a school overall, so take pride in having it.
Q: What do you think we’re still lacking in terms of facilities?
Wall: It’s kind of hard because the school’s not that old, but there are things that could be built. Some of the fields could be upgraded, just maintenance things. I’m not gonna say we have bad facilities, but we definitely still need some upgrades and maintenance.
