After playing home football games at other campus sites throughout its 50-year history, Cypress High School has scheduled a 4 p.m. Nov. 13 groundbreaking ceremony to usher in the construction of new, high-end football and track and field facilities.
The ambitious project—estimated by Nancy Nien, Anaheim Union High School District’s assistant superintendent of business services—will cost between $13 million and $14 million, and will also upgrade the Southern California school’s soccer and softball fields.
“A lot of kids will be impacted,” Mrs. Nien told The Epoch Times. “You always want to make sure you give the best for our kids. When I saw the field condition, I was like, ‘This is really not OK.’ We want to make sure our kids get additional opportunities, and make sure they play on something safe.”
Cypress has been contesting its home football games, including last week’s 50–24 victory over Rio Mesa of Oxnard in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs, at Western High in Anaheim. The Centurions will be at Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach for a second-round playoff game at 7 p.m. Nov. 11.
The hope is that not only will Cypress soon be able to play football games on its own grounds, perhaps as early as next season, but that the football and track venue, with seating for between 1,600 and 1,700 spectators, will be high enough quality to also allow hosting of CIF post-season football and track competitions.
“It’s such an exciting venture because we have these amazing student-athletes on this campus who really excel in both academics and athletics, and our facilities don’t meet their level of dedication and achievement,” Cypress Principal Jennifer Brown told The Epoch Times. “Now we’re going to be able to give them a state-of-the-art facility that will meet where they are. We’re excited to be able to give them that opportunity.”
Immediately upon becoming principal last year, Mrs. Brown began hearing from the Cypress community, students, and parents about the desire for upgraded facilities.
“One of the first things people said to me was, ‘Hey, can you help us?’” she said. “I went to the district, and they were very, very supportive. That was just a year ago, and now here we are, breaking ground. By next year, it’ll be done.”
While construction timelines can obviously be unpredictable, work is set to begin immediately after the groundbreaking ceremony.
“Right now, our goal is to be able to hand this new field to our football team in August of 2024,” Mrs. Brown said. “We have lofty goals because we know how important it is for our kids to have these facilities. The foreman who is overseeing the project and the project manager agree that they can do it.”
It is expected to take longer for the track and field facilities to be completed, but the hope is that will happen in time for the 2025 spring season. The project also includes a new junior varsity softball field and re-seeded soccer fields.
“All of that area will be given a facelift,” Mrs. Brown said. “Every one of our fields will be better because of this.”
Physical-education classes, the school’s band, and other students will also benefit, while the artificial-turf football field will enable teams to practice on it daily.
“We’ve been dealing with grass all these years,” Cypress Assistant Principal Joseph Boardwine told The Epoch Times. “We’re excited for the lower maintenance. Really, something I think every community wants is to be able to host games that mean something on their home turf, so it’s a big deal. Everybody is pretty fired up about it.”
