Tuolumne Football Season Update
Tuolumne, CA — Summerville High School construction is on track, but they are pushing back the Homecoming Football game, as Sonora’s plans remain delayed at the Division of the State Architects.
A lot of work has been completed for the Summerville Stadium. Summerville High School Superintendent Robert Griffith says, “We are on track, we will be done with that piece sometime in August.” He says the State Architects are ahead of schedule in approving new concrete stadium bleachers. Once Summerville gets final approval, the bid process can start with construction expected in July.
Superintendent Griffith says the current football schedule is a worst case scenario with home games scheduled to be played away. October 3rd is the first game scheduled as a home game, but Griffith says “It is fluid at this point”. Griffith confirms that there is no grand opening date yet. The Homecoming game, scheduled for October 3rd, Griffith says, “will be moved back for sure”. He says they are looking at maybe October 17th or Nov 7th, the last game of the year. The overall stadium renovation project includes reconfiguring and replacing the field, ADA upgrades, and renovating the snack shack.
Sonora High School Superintendent Dr. Mike McCoy says plans should clear the state architect within a week. The stadium is one of 5 projects submitted in December. The length of time to get approval, McCoy says, is related to modifications to the older Humanities Building built in 1938, and the Cafeteria built in 1960. He notes that getting approval for modifying older buildings is “a nightmare, with all the engineering, electrical, plumbing and all of that”.
Superintendent Dr. McCoy says he will be meeting with the school board on July 22nd to discuss what to do about scheduling the football season. Currently the Wildcats 2014 home football games are planned to be played either at Bret Harte High School or Calaveras High School. According to McCoy, even after state architect approval, there are still Environmental requirements, and construction bids to get before construction can begin.
There have been concerns over loosing Sonora stadium gate fees. During a normal football season gate fees bring in $25-30,000 and it will cost extra to transport the team. McCoy counters by saying, “delaying construction 3-4 months we could lose up to $200-300K in escalation costs. A month delay might not make that much difference.”
In the past, Superintendent Dr. McCoy has stated sports are held at the stadium year round, including boys soccer and football in the fall, and girls soccer and track-and-field in the spring. He said there is no good time to shutdown for 150 days of construction. For more details on the delays click here. The 2014 football schedules will continue to be updated and posted on our football page.
