Randy Garrett gave an update on the North Harrison Sports Complex following Friday’s game between North Harrison and Gilman City. Two years ago, a dozen people got together and talked about starting up a football team and having a track. Currently, the track team has to practice on the playground or in the streets, and there is no place for community members to go when they want to exercise. In spite of this, the girls track team won the HDC Conference Title last spring.
The project gained momentum after someone left the City of Eagleville a lot of money in their will to put towards the betterment of the community. From that, the City of Eagleville agreed to donate $60,000 towards the project. Land north of the school was purchased, and construction on the track portion began last fall.
There were several other large donations for the project; four people were recognized following the game and presented with the first-ever North Harrison football jerseys with the number 17, for the year that the project got off the ground. Brian Nail of Nail Excavating was recognized for donating $83,000 worth of labor. Jack Briggs and Greg Cracraft of Briggs & Cracraft Construction were recognized for donating $30,000 worth of labor. Derrick Collins’ company did $21,000 worth of surveying work and legal descriptions for the land and donated their services; accepting the award for him was his mother, Penny Collins.
As a result of these and other smaller donations, the project was able to qualify for a $150,000 Missouri DNR Grant. Janice Borey wrote the grant for the project, and North Harrison was the only high school in the state to get the grant for 2017.
The project is a joint project between the City of Eagleville and the school. The new facility will be used to host track meets and it will be open to the public to use when it is not being used by the school for events. The goal is to complete the project with no burden on the school.
Currently, North Harrison plays football as part of a cooperative with Pattonsburg and Gilman City; the question is whether the Shamrocks can get enough numbers of their own to field a football team. Athletic Director Aaron Long said that fielding a team would be a few years down the road. First, he said they would have to hire a coach from within the school and field a junior high program for two years. If they have sufficient numbers and interest, then they could field a football team. Possible cooperative partners could include Ridgeway and Cainsville; Ridgeway competed in the Grand River Conference until 1947, when they disbanded their program. Under MSHSAA rules, three eight man schools can form a football cooperative if the combined enrollment is less than 200.
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