By Allen Hamrick
If you have passed by Clay County High School and seen what looks like an archaeological dig for football dinosaurs and wondered what the first down is going on, think no more – the brand new astro turf field is being installed. No longer will Clay County be known as the mud hole field, now we will be respected in the field of sports. Like the idea or not, it’s going in and it will be a spectacular opportunity for the youth of this county. A person must look at this field with anopen mind. Yeah, it costs a small fortune, but the benefits outweigh the cost. After all, you can’t take your tax monies with you.
This field will not only benefit the high school football program but will also be used for the CCMS football games as well as the Little League games. It will have a new softball field as well as a concrete path around it for the fans to walk in instead of mud. The field will also be marked for soccer so that in the future, if soccer teams can be formed, there will be an opportunity. Presently, there is a place at Maysel Park where kids are practicing soccer, so who knows what the future will hold? The dirt that is being taken from the field will be placed at the field at Maysel Park to level the playing field. The new field will also benefit the track team. Although they will not have the oval track for obvious engineering reasons, the track team will have opportunity to practice hurdles and other running events, and the band will have a great place to practice drills. This is an investment in the youth of this county to give them all the opportunities available at other schools. It’s out of the dark ages of mud and guts to high society sports for the youth of the county.
According to Superintendent Phil Dobbins this is strictly to benefit the students of the county and give them opportunities for growth. If we don’t invest in the youth, then there is no future for them.Sports are a big deal in this county, second only to education. While it may seem that the school system is losing ground in academics, the test scores have gone up and the future looks bright. Althoughwe are losing students and decreasing the teacher population, the system is hanging in there. There are reasons for the loss of teachers and students, but that’s for another article. This is all about the new field and what great opportunities it will bring to the youth of the county. So, sit back and support the local teams this fall as they hit the new field and enjoy it.
