The usual quiet of summer around the Regis Jesuit High School campus has been replaced with a cacophony of heavy machinery.
In one of the larger summers of construction since the school moved across town to Aurora from its original home in Denver in 1990, the dust will settle on a lot of change in facilities for both academics and athletics.
The most striking difference when classes begin on Aug. 16 — aside from a roundabout on Lewiston Way installed by the City of Aurora — is the progress on the Science & Innovation Center, a 65,000-square foot facility that will be the entrance to the campus on its west edge and is scheduled to open for the second semester of the school year.
But the changes athletically are significant as well and more are in the offing according to Todd Schuler, who begins his second year as athletic director after he arrived from North Carolina.
“Investment in facility is a show of commitment to programming and we’re seeing that on the academic and cocurricular side, so I’m excited for our students,” he said. “There’s a lot of gratitude on my part to our Board of Trustees and school leadership for making these investments.”
Lou Kellogg Stadium — the school’s highest-traffic area during fall and spring seasons with a bevy of field sports in each — has undergone a complete makeover, save for the long-standing press box on its east edge and the scoreboard at the north end. The turf field used for football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse has been ripped up as well as the entire track surface.
Both will be fully replaced — the artificial turf had exceeded the typical 8-10 year life of such surfaces — won’t be ready for the start of the fall season, as the vast amount of rainfall in the late spring and early summer hindered construction.
In the interim, football, boys soccer and field hockey teams all will have to cram onto Laber Field, the school’s other turf field, for alternating practices. They will also spend the first few weeks playing at other venues.
The football team’s first two games (against parochial school rival Valor Christian Aug. 26 and against visiting Kennedy Catholic from Washington on Sept. 2) will be home games, but they will be played at EchoPark Stadium in Parker.
The grand unveiling of the work is set for a Sept. 22 showdown with three-time defending Class 5A state champion Cherry Creek. It’ll be a bit of a wait until then, but Schuler believes it will be well worth it.
“There’s going to be a bit of sacrifice on the front end with practice times moving and not having the stadium available for the start, but this is necessary for safety and for the long term,” he said. “There’s some really exciting enhancements coming for our student athletes and coaches, so I’m excited for them.”
The gymnasium floor in the Girls Division — the building that housed the original Boys Division until its new building was constructed in 2004 — had been resurfaced many times in the past, but a complete rebuild became necessary. Everything was removed down to the concrete and will be completely rebuilt with a floor that will match the one in the Boys Division, while small bleachers along the west wall have been removed.
While the work in the stadium and gymnasium will be done at the start or in the early stages of the school year, breaking ground on the school’s new tennis courts will take place sometime in the fall behind the campus to the east. The school’s original courts were demolished to make room for the Science and Innovation Center and the boys and girls tennis teams will continue to play home matches at Colorado Athletic Club-Inverness until the new courts are completed.
Two more multi-use turf field are to come in the future as well.
Aside from the facilities, there will be plenty of differences athletically for Regis Jesuit right off the bat.
Over the summer, head girls basketball coach Jordan Kasemodel was hired to join the athletic department as associate athletic director.
Two new sports — though one of them old — will take place at Regis Jesuit in the fall with the return of softball and the advent of girls flag football.
Softball players at Regis Jesuit had to play at other schools last year due to low numbers — and a few signed to play in college in Brooke Carey and Kendall Kersey — but a good-sized group of freshmen will help get the program back on the field. It will have a distinctly baseball connection as Tyler Robbins, who has worked in the past on the staff of head baseball coach Matt Darr, will coach, with Darr helping out.
Flag football — still in the pilot stage as it moves toward possible sanctioning from the Colorado High School Activities Association — is now available for all schools that can field a team after only a few schools districts were able to participate the first time. The Regis Jesuit flag football team will be headed by Ben Danecki, who was the freshman football coach last season.
Also on Schuler’s docket is finding a new head boys lacrosse coach to replace the recently-retired Jim Soran, who had the position for more than three decades and brought home multiple state championships.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
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