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The E.D. White football team won’t have to worry about playing or practicing on too many muddy fields in the upcoming season.
That’s because the school announced this week that it will be adding a field turf surface to Yockey Bernard Field at Harvey Peltier Stadium.
The surfacing will serve as the centerpiece behind a complete remodeling of the stadium – a project that is expected to be completed before the 2013 slate kicks off this fall.
“I think for many different people – fans, our band and obviously our team – this is going to be a completely different environment,” E.D. White football coach Kyle Lasseigne said. “But it’s going to be something that we’d all hoped for. We’re just really grateful that it’s coming to be done at this point.”
The addition of field turf to Yockey Bernard Field will be somewhat of an early Christmas gift to the Cardinals’ athletics department – one with a nearly $1 million price tag.
Lasseigne said a donor emerged at the end of the past school year with a desire to give back to the school.
The coach did not identify the donor by name, just confirming that the person was a Cardinals’ alum.
Lasseigne also referred to the donor as a “he” throughout the interview this week.
“We found out at the end of the school year that this was a project that he wanted to do,” Lasseigne said. “It was really an appreciation for (E.D. White Athletics Director) Preston LeJeune and the things that he had done for the donor when he was at E.D. White as a student.
“The donor specifically wanted his donation to go toward a turf field, and in addition to that, he wanted us to rededicate the field and the new turf to Yockey Bernard again.”
After getting approval from the Bishop and the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, the project officially got its legs and took off.
The final product will be virtually a brand new stadium.
Lasseigne said that in addition to the turf, the first thing fans will likely notice at E.D. White’s home football games in the fall is a change in the stadium’s lighting.
The Cardinals’ stadium previously positioned its bleachers behind its lights – an alignment that created dead spots on the field for those seated near the posts.
But when workers dig up the grass, they will also take down the posts and reposition them at the corners of the field. The new lights will also hold more power than the old ones – which should also enhance the game day experience for the Cardinals’ players and fans.
“That’s a change that I think people will be very happy to see made,” Lasseigne said.
The Cardinals’ students will also be pleased with the move.
The football coach said that while working on the field, workers will move the endzone bleacher seats inward – a move that will unite the team’s band and student section on game day.
They were previously positioned at opposite ends of the field.
“That’s something that I think our kids will be excited about,” Lasseigne said. “That was a decision we had talked about making for a long time even before the turf became an option. I think that will let them have more fun with their classmates to give us a better home field advantage.”
But while football will likely get all of the attention in the move, Lasseigne made sure to mention that the renovations will benefit most of the school’s outdoor sports, as well.
On the surface of the turf, permanent soccer lines will be drawn – a feature that makes Yockey Bernard a full-time football and soccer field.
While doing construction, workers will also install new long and triple jump pits for the school’s track team.
“It’s not just for football,” Lasseigne said. “Soccer will benefit greatly from this. Track will benefit from this. It’s really something that makes us a more complete, well-rounded athletic department.”
But for football purposes, the only question now is whether the field will be done before the start of the season.
Lasseigne said current estimates have the project being completed by mid-to-late August – a timeline that would comfortably allow the Cardinals to open their football season on Sept. 6 against Vandebilt.
But in the event of a tropical weather event or a series of rainy weeks, Lasseigne admits that schedule may be thrown off its mark.
“We have talked about what we’d do if something would give us a little bit of a setback,” Lasseigne said. “Because it’s the first year of our two-year contracts with scheduling, if it came to that, we’d probably ask Vandebilt to flip the first game, and we’d go play over there.”
But rain or shine, the field will be here in 2013, and the Cardinals’ stadium will be a sight to see.
“This is a real blessing to our football program – we’re so thankful to the donor,” Lasseigne said.
E.D. White defenders sling down an H.L. Bourgeois ball carrier during a scrimmage last season. The Cardinals’ defense will be roaming on new turf in the upcoming season as a donor has committed to paying for a field turf surface in the team’s football stadium.
