Building home for ’Canes

In slightly more than five weeks, East Hamilton is scheduled to open the 2010 high school football season.

The Hurricanes can only hope they’ll be able to have the school’s first home game on Aug. 27 against Signal Mountain.

Although the school opened a year ago, the only athletic events East Hamilton teams have been able to host were of the indoor variety — boys’ and girls’ basketball, volleyball and wrestling.

Football and soccer will be next.

Workers were finishing up last week on sub-surface drainage and the irrigation system and Ted Gatewood, the Hurricanes’ athletic director and football coach, hoped to have sod trucks rolling in beginning today.

“I’m hoping we’ll be ready for that first game. We need it to be ready,” Gatewood said. “We need for our kids to be here at this facility. Playing at home really has an impact on the program and the community.”

In its first year of existence the football team played 10 games on the road, utilizing facilities at Tyner, East Ridge and Finley Stadium for home games. Gatewood had to hire a bus for all 10 games rather than the standard of five road trips.

“It gets expensive but we broke even,” he said.

The coach had meetings with members of the CaneRaisers, one of the school’s booster groups, about lights. The biggest problem is money.

Construction of the field (with irrigation and the foundation for an eight-lane track) costs $202,000. Lighting will be an additional $170,000 including poles, the setting of those poles, the fixtures themselves and labor, which includes wiring and aiming the fixtures. If finances allow, Gatewood will be happy to get that far this year.

“We will probably have to bring in Coke wagons for concessions and portable restroom facilities, and we’re looking at getting portable bleachers for this first season,” he said. “We’d like to have permanent concession stands and bathrooms but that’s probably a year or two down the road.”

Estimates he had received put the cost of concession stands and permanent bathrooms at $90,000 to $100,000 and at $200,000 for the track.

The crews have made good progress, he said, especially since they didn’t break ground on the facility until June 12.

“The county (Hamilton County Schools) has been great, but the county doesn’t fund athletic facilities. People have to understand that you have to get out and raise the money,” Gatewood said.

There are several ways to give to East Hamilton athletics through individual or business donations. Interested persons should go to CaneRaisers.org on the Internet.

Fundraising has been hampered because of the current economic situation, and several major pledged donations fell through because of the recession. Gatewood agreed that his patience had been tested.

“I’m impatient. There was a lot involved with getting things rolling. I’ve never been to a place where you had nothing,” he said.

The only things he had were the school’s nickname and colors (Kelly green and black) which were selected after a poll of the community.

Once the athletic stadium and track are completed, boosters will turn their eyes toward on-campus facilities for baseball, softball and track. There are hopes to give the soccer team, which already has a practice field, a separate playing facility. Building on-campus tennis facilities will be put off until later.

The football field — Gatewood prefers to call it an outdoor athletic facility — will be used for more than two dozen teams and events including everything from middle school cheerleading and the dance team through middle school, freshmen, junior varsity and varsity teams in soccer, track and football.

“Football had nowhere to go. At least baseball and softball have temporary venues they can use,” he said.

The softball team can play at the Summit of Softball complex and the baseball team at East Brainerd ball fields. Still, Gatewood hopes facilities for those teams can be in place by the 2012 seasons. Courts for the tennis team, which played last year at Standifer Gap and Mountain Shadows, will come after that.

When asked about a completion date for all athletic facilities, Gatewood smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ll probably be dead. Seriously, it may take us 10 years. So much depends on fund-raising.”