Video: SMCC announces plan for athletic complex
St. Mary Catholic Central could get a football field of its own for the first time as part of an ambitious plan for a new athletic complex.
MONROE – St. Mary Catholic Central’s football team may soon have a home of its own for the first time in school history.
The high school announced an ambitious plan Wednesday to build a new football field as part of an athletic complex off Comboni Way in Frenchtown Township.
“It’s a blessing,” SMCC athletic director Jared Janssen said. “This is something that has intrigued me since I took the job (at SMCC in 2022). We have such a rich tradition of sports at SMCC.”
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SMCC owns more Michigan High School Athletic Association state championships in football than any other Monroe County Region school (three, won in 1991, 2014 and 2019), but has never had a field of its own.
For most of the years since forming a football team in the 1940s, the school has rented Navarre Field from the Monroe School District.
“We pay them $1,000 a game to rent the field and the concession stand,” Janssen said.
The “Growing the Nest” plan announced by SMCC Wednesday is a four-phase project that eventually will include a synthetic turf football field. a multi-purpose field house, tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, an all-weather track, a football practice field and improvements to the soccer and lacrosse field already located on the former Boysville site.
The 60-acre property was donated to SMCC in 2017.
“COVID kind of delayed it moving forward,” Janssen said. “When I interviewed in the summer of 2022, they threw out the rendering and it was awesome. This has been a dream of the school for a long time.”
The first phase is slated to include a football field and track, paved parking and an access drive from Nadeau Rd.
“We’re starting to build a capital campaign, hopefully early next year,” Janssen said. “Everything we do is fully through fund raising. We don’t do bond issues.”
Janssen said the estimated cost of the first phase is $4 million.
“We’ll get started as soon as we have the money,” he said.
Some work on the property has already started.
“The biggest step for us was getting Boysville down,” Janssen said. “It has been fully demolished.”
The next step will be clearing some of the heavily wooded land.
“Once we put a shovel in the ground, it will take 12 to 18 months to complete phase one,” Janssen said. “We have to clear trees, move dirt around and work on plumbing and electrical. We’re basically starting from scratch.”
The dream of kicking off a football game on their own field is a long way off for the Falcons, but Janssen was excited to share the dream.
“This is a big day, getting the vision out there,” he said.
2023-10-12 03:18:59
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