Panther Field was ready, just in time

One week before Jefferson High’s Aug. 29 football home opener against Loyola Sacred Heart, the newly rebuilt Panther Field was still…just a field. Sections of newly purchased goal posts were piled up beyond one end zone — which was not yet an actual end zone, since no lines had been painted.

This was cutting it closer than school officials might have liked for the debut of their $1.5 million project. “We had concerns,” said Superintendent Erik Wilkerson. 

Over the last six months, workers had installed a new irrigation and sprinkler system, re-crowned the soil to improve drainage, planted pristine new sod, and put up fencing and gleaming new bleachers. (All that in addition to the new running track circling the field.)