Winning Strategy: ACS Athletics Capital Plan Update
ACS - Several special projects remain in the works for Alabaster City Schools (ACS) as its Athletics Program unveils new updates to its Athletics Capital Projects Plan.
Projects in the current ACS Athletics Capital Projects Plan total more than $6,000,000 and encompass both the high school and middle school campuses.
Construction and facility upgrades will be overseen by Volkert Program Management and McKee Architecture and contracted by Amason & Associates, Inc.
“These projects will ensure that ACS and our Athletics program continue to be the standard for training and game day facilities not only in Alabama - but across the Southeast,” Thompson High School Director of Athletics Vincent Pitts said.
The ACS Athletics Capital Projects Plan will include multiple items for the Thompson High School (THS) campus:
New multi-purpose practice fields with natural grass and LED lighting spanning 2.8 acres.
Construction of a third gymnasium at THS (11K+ sq ft) featuring six basketball goals, state-of-the-art sound system, LED lighting and new lockers / storage spaces for our visual ensemble ( Dance Team, Color Guard and Majorettes)
Indoor training facilities for softball (3,600+ sq ft) and baseball (4,544 sq ft). Both buildings will house two batting lanes with a retractable net system and weight training facilities with LED lighting.
New hard floor tile for Athletics facility and new wall tile designed to provide uniform standards and extend life of materials.
7,000+ square feet of newly-carpeted surfaces in the spring sports locker rooms and coaches areas for soccer, tennis and track and field, softball locker room, and football locker room.
Expansions to coaches locker room space (additional showers and lockers).
State-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool (15-jets, 1,500-gallon capacity) designed to enhance sports medicine practices.
Flooring upgrades throughout; designed to conform to the high aesthetic standards of ACS.
Pitts lauded the ACS Athletics Capital Projects Plan for its multiple benefits across all sports programs.
"The addition of the baseball and softball indoor spaces will improve our training frequency and efficiency, allow our baseball and softball operations to be housed within the same location for all activities, and will help aid in the transition and expansion of our athletic training and sports medicine services at the baseball and softball facilities,” Pitts said. “New fields, in particular, will improve our ability to host tournaments, summer camps, and other events as well as the ability to better accommodate daily operations within our soccer and football programs and better accommodate the practices of these programs and many other growing programs.”
With regard to Thompson Middle School (TMS), the ACS Athletics Capital Projects Plan includes:
Renovated weight training facility using the existing weight training areas with eight new weight training stations being added.
Gymnasium and locker room upgrades designed to include floor and wall tile to meet ACS standards.
Upgrades to restroom and locker plumbing fixtures with new lighting in PE locker rooms (Oct. 2022 completion).
Pitts expressed how the ACS Athletics Capital Projects Plan has come together thanks to solid district leadership and ultimately will benefit student-athletes across Alabaster City Schools.
"We certainly appreciate Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers and the ACS Board of Education for their continued quest of chasing greatness, as they have approved significant upgrades across many facets of our Athletics program,” Pitts said. “We are blessed with an administration which helps provide the tools needed to compete at the highest of levels, build great programs, and assist in the development of the whole student-athlete. We have so many student-athletes that will recognize the benefits of these additions and upgrades and we are very thankful."
