Beginning with the 2022 football season, the Woodlawn Colonels will have their own on campus football stadium. Birmingham City Schools leaders broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art stadium at the school last Wednesday morning. It means the Colonels will no longer have to drive to Lawson Field to play their home games.
“It’s very much exciting for me giving the kids something they can call their own but especially for the community,” Colonels head coach Gentrell Eatman told CBS 42. “I think it’s going to be big for the community as something right here they’ll have in their back yard where they can come to and support the kids here.”
The project is expected to cost around 5.5 million dollars. Construction should begin soon. When completed, the stadium will have athletic turf, a renovated fieldhouse, lighting and a complete sound system. The stadium is designed to accommodate more than 2,800 spectators.
The stadium will be a much needed shot in the arm for the 6A Colonels who have struggled. In the last 25 years Woodlawn has had but two winning seasons. The team has won only 8 games in the last 8 seasons, and has had eight different head coaches in the last nine years. In 2011, the Colonels had their last winning season going 7-4 under head coach Bruce Breland.
“This is a big deal,” Eatman said. “We are grateful to have the opportunity to have a stadium on campus.”
Birmingham Schools Superintendent Mark Sullivan, a graduate of Woodlawn, told WBHM, “This day is a long time coming. We in Birmingham City Schools are going to be your first choice in education. In order for us to do that, we have to ensure that our academics are first-rate, but we also have to ensure that our facilities are too.”
“This right here is instrumental for our student-athletes, and our community, to have our own home field right here on our campus,” Principal Terrell Brown said. “We’re going to continue the tradition that has been started from many great athletes.”
Phots courtesy of al.com. Thanks to WBHM in Birmingham for the video.
Comments