Over the summer, there have been many changes to Southwest, including a new turf field and new flooring for the weight room. Both projects were new renovations for the athletic department, but these changes have a large impact on the community as well. The turf was to be replaced last summer and was scheduled to take one month to finish. However, when the company started construction, they found problems with the foundation underneath the turf. 

“In the process of [Ellis Construction] coming in and changing it, they found out there were some subsurface issues, problems that they had to go and fix this summer,” principal Scott Roberts said. “So we thought this was a project that was going to start at the end of May, and finish by the end of June and it took until the middle of August.”

The weight room flooring was also replaced this summer and the connecting storage room was renovated to be another fitness area. 

“We didn’t have good flooring in there, all we had was just that concrete floor,” Roberts said. “And we also use what has been a storage space, we use that for some other fitness more, more like plyometrics, box jumping, things like that.”

These changes not only benefit the athletic department, but they are also convenient for members of the band and others in the school community to use.

“We actually rent those fields, to lacrosse teams to youth football teams, so not only is a benefit for our school community, but also our community as large, because it’s a really nice field that members of the community and teams can use and even some of the club teams can use,”  Roberts said.

The new turf field and flooring in the weight room were the biggest projects which happened over the summer, however, there will be many more changes to Southwest in the future. One of these will be a large tower, which will allow people to look out over the football field and house the press box.