Home Field Advantage Taking Friday night lights and more to the next level with its new centralized sports complex Written by Jaime Handy Crowley ISD is taking Friday night lights and more to the next level with its new centralized sports complex to serve Crowley High School and North Crowley High School. Voters approved funding for the project as part of the 2007 bond package and the new facility is scheduled to be complete in fall of 2022. “We are excited to unveil this design to our students, staff and community,” CISD Superintendent Dr. Michael D. McFarland said. “Once again, our school board is delivering on the promises made from the 2007 voterapproved bond package, and we believe this will be an elite facility for our students to compete and thrive at the highest level.” Earthwork has already started at the site near David L. Walker Elementary School off Risinger Road, between Crowley Road and Interstate 35W. Designed by VLK Architects, the complex will include a field house with locker rooms and training areas, a split-level press box and an 8,000-seat stadium that will be highly visible from Interstate 35W. On the second level of the field house, there will be a 3,000-square-foot community room to host large events. The North endzone will showcase a 60x30 foot LED video scoreboard and the concourse will be open to the field on both sides, so fans will never miss a moment of the action. “As a board, we want the CISD Sport Complex to be a source of pride for our students, as well as the entire community,” CISD School Board President Mia Hall said. “As the district continues to grow and more families are choosing CISD, the demand for more space and updated facilities to accommodate our award-winning
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programs has grown as well. We cannot wait to see our students compete and perform in this amazing venue.” The new complex joins a long list of athletic and fine arts facility upgrades from Crowley ISD in the past five years. In that time, the district has seen tremendous growth in student enrollment and has approved the following updates: • Expanded locker rooms for NCHS football, as well as CHS football, baseball and softball • Enlarged the main basketball gym at NCHS, adding capacity, a new weight room, media room and locker rooms. • Video boards added to CHS and NCHS basketball gyms • Constructed larger band halls at CHS and NCHS • Updated and expanded the auditorium at NCHS • New indoor practice facilities at CHS and NCHS to serve the band and all athletic programs that need a safe, dry place to train when the weather is cold and wet. The current football stadiums will still be used daily by the high school football and soccer programs for practice and sub-varsity competition. The track and field teams will also continue to train on the home campus facilities. The CISD Sports Complex will also be available for playoff games and other events for outside organizations, providing additional revenue to the district.
