Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Board of Education met for their monthly meeting Tuesday evening, where Superintendent of Autauga County Schools Lyman Woodfin confirmed that the long-awaited construction on the Stanely-Jensen Stadium will conclude and allow the last game of the season to be a true home game.
“We appreciate the contractor giving us the opportunity to host our last game of the season in the stadium. As an active construction site, that’s not something he had to offer us. There will be very limited access, so we are requesting that any fans attending the November 1st game be respectful of the restricted area,” Woodfin said.
The Prattville High School Lions have been playing their “home” games this season in the City of Wetumpka, where the district has had to have a game-to-game contract for the program to proceed.
“This new facility will be first-class. It will give our kids a sense of pride and eagerness to compete to make their hometown proud,” Woodfin said.
Due to PHS being one of the largest schools in the state, playing games at other facilities throughout the district was just not feasible due to size.
Autauga County Schools, or ACS has three stadiums within the school district being Autaugaville a 1A classification, Billingsley also a 1A classification, and Marbury a 5A classification. The stadiums are too small to hold the crowds for a Prattville High School 7A classification football program.
“We’re excited for the community to be able to use this new field as much as possible,” Woodfin said in a previous interview with Elmore Autauga News.
Woodfin stated that the Elmore County School District and their Superintendent Richard Dennis, the City of Wetumpka, Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie, Prattville Parks and Recreation Director Kellie Cook, Prattville City Councilman Robert Strichik and the contractor to the project have been nothing but outstanding through this whole process and commended them for their help.
“I want to publicly commend the City of Prattville, Mayor Gillespie, Ms. Cook, Mr. Strichik, everyone has worked hand in hand with this process. I also want to commend the contractor because the contractor didn’t have to open the facility up. A lot of people just don’t understand that process. It’s his job side, and we were able to work through some things legally on that. A huge shout out to everybody working together on this,” Woodfin said.
In closing comments, board member Kyle Glover stated that he had been to numerous events while the Prattville Lions were playing in Wetumpka and called the event a first-class act, even in “enemy territory.”
“I think that this partnership is a great way and great start in building a bridge that can build a relationship for a long time,” Glover said.
