New Grant High School athletic fields being built in Ingleside

Two decades of enrollment growth at Grant High School has resulted in construction of new classrooms, a library and a field house in recent years at the Fox Lake campus.

Now, officials say, it's time to focus on improvements to outdoor athletic fields.

Grant High School District 124 is bulldozing a former mink farm at Molidor and Fish Lake roads in Ingleside as part of a $3.3 million project that will create 40 acres of new athletic fields to accommodate the growing number of students participating in sports. Athletic fields at the main campus off Devlin Road also will be renovated, district officials said.

"These improvements will allow the high school to continue to grow their athletic programs and involve more students in extracurricular activities, as we have seen enrollment grow from 800 students in 1994-95 to 1,950 students in 2014-15," District 124 Business Manager Beth Reich said in an email.

The land for the new fields, which is about 5 miles from the main campus at Route 59 and Grand Avenue, was purchased for $2.1 million in December 2011, Reich said. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2016.

The Molidor Road complex will feature two fields for each baseball, softball and soccer and a cross country running path. The fields will be used mostly by freshman and junior varsity teams. There won't be locker rooms, but there will be a concession stand with space for storage, restrooms, a trainers room and snack sales. A building once used by the mink farm also will be used for storage, Reich said.

Improvements on the main campus will include new dugouts, an improved warning track and new safety netting and bleachers at the varsity baseball fields, she said.

The varsity softball field is being moved from the north side of the Devlin Road to the south side, where the junior varsity baseball team played. Reich said the move will be completed when the Molidor Road fields are in the final stages. The softball fields will be replaced by new soccer practice fields.

Both projects will be paid for with construction funds left over from a previous referendum and from the school's operating budget.

This is the latest athletic expansion at Grant. In February 2008, voters approved a $38.5 million bond sale to fund construction of the athletic field house, an art studio and new classrooms.

At the time, district officials projected enrollment would swell to 2,300 students by 2014. Superintendent Christy Sefcik said those projections were revised down slightly in 2008 to reflect an economic downturn and a reduction in housing development in Fox Lake and Ingleside. The latest projections show enrollment will continue to increase slightly in the next several years.

"If housing development and turnover had continued at the pace experienced between 1996 and 2006, our enrollment could have been as high as 2,300 this year," Sefcik said. "The construction of the fields is the result of several years of planning by the (Grant High School) board of education, administration, and coaching staff. We are very excited about the opportunities these fields provide to increase participation in our athletic programs."

Reich said the district has created new and additional levels of sports in the last 20 years because of enrollment growth, resulting in some problems in scheduling practices on the few fields available. About 800 students participate in athletics, she said.

"It is always a challenge to schedule practices and games for the many levels on the fields we currently have," she said. "Our soccer teams have used the Grant Township Field of Dreams for many practices and games."

The move is not only about wins and losses by Grant teams. Studies show students who participate in extracurricular activities do better in school academically, Reich said.

"Encouraging participation in extracurricular activities is just one way we are looking to raise achievement levels of our students," she said.

The district settled on the Ingleside site because few parcels in the area met student needs for athletic fields, Reich said.

Officials don't expect the distance to create any transportation problems for students, who will be bused to and from the site before and after practices and games, she said. The bus ride takes 6 to 8 minutes, depending on traffic, she added.

As part of the project, District 124 agreed to contribute money toward the cost of adding a left-turn lane on Molidor Road to provide access to the fields and its 150-space parking lot, she said.

"The turn lane was needed after a traffic study on Fish Lake Road showed the added fields will result in additional traffic to the area," Reich said.

Principal Jeremy Schmidt said the new fields will allow coaches to schedule multiple levels of team practices and games simultaneously and to work more efficiently.

"It's a pretty exciting time for us," Schmidt said. "We have been able to grow our academic facilities in the past. Now, we are able to do that with athletics."