When fans show up to Travis Hudson Stadium on August 26 for Curry’s first home game in week two of the 2022 season, they will be greeted by the first facelift at the stadium since the concession stand was updated and the scoreboard was added quite some time ago.
The old concrete bleachers that sat atop a hill on the visitor’s sideline are no more. The hill was leveled off before they were replaced last month by a set of new metal bleachers.
“It’s going to make our stadium completely better,” said Curry head coach DJ Emerson. He said that $450 thousand bleacher renovation is the beginning of an effort to make ongoing improvements to the athletic facilities at Curry High School.
“I’m a firm believer that if you’re not constantly improving, you’re getting behind,” he said. “There’s a reason the University of Alabama keeps upgrading. They’ve won countless National Championships, but they’re constantly renovating and improving. That’s something that I want for our campus and our school, not just the football program.”
The school also closed on the old Rice Lake Weighing Systems building last month that will be converted into an indoor practice facility for the football program.
Curry is currently the only county school to not have an indoor facility.
“Just showing those constant improvements, that we have a plan and that we’re trying to build this program to where it needs to be shows the commitment (that we have) from our Board and administrators,” Emerson said.
While Emerson’s focus turns toward the 2022 football season, he says he hopes to see more investment and improvement into Curry athletics. He said his wishlist for future upgrades includes updating and renovating the entire field house, including the weight room, offices and meetings rooms, update the entrance to the stadium, update the home-side bleachers with a new pressbox and, eventually, upgrade the field to turf and install a jumbotron.
“Since the day that I stepped foot on campus, everybody has always been all in,” he said. “We’re all moving in the same direction. I’m really excited to see what the future is going to hold for Curry athletics as a whole with these new additions we are going to do to our athletic programs.”
