TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Pueblo High School (PHS) football team will have a brand new elite state-of-the-art artificial turf field to call home next season.
Back in March, the Southside’s PHS's head football coach Sly Lewis followed up on a request and asked the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Board when they would be getting a new field.
Coach Lewis says not only is Pueblo one of the oldest schools in the district, but a turf field is needed because it would help prevent injuries.
After years of waiting for it to happen, the project has finally come to fruition.
“Last year we had about four injuries that were season ending and it was due to the fields, so again this is a new surface. They’re gonna be able to have a lot more protection and I just think it’s a win-win for everybody," Lewis said.
Construction started the first week of June.
Alec Espinoza, senior left guard, is excited the wait is finally over.
“We’re extremely grateful to have gotten this field. It’s been a long time coming for sure after having this old grass field. You know it’s historic, but it’s time for a change absolutely," Espinoza said.
Mark Anaya, senior offensive and defensive lineman, says playing on turf will benefit him tremendously.
“It's easier on all my joints. I don’t have the best knees personally. Especially on my allergies too, considering all that pollen and seeds is real bad on my allergies, eliminating that really boosts me personally," said Anaya.
Espinoza reiterates how this field will make a huge difference for him and his team.
"I think it'll be night and day for sure," Espinoza said. "I think personally for me, it'll be much better on my ankles and my knees, and you know, much better for the rest of the guys as well."
The turf field comes with a price tag of just over $2 million using TUSD's $480 million school bond.
When KGUN 9 first spoke with Ricky Hernández, TUSD Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in March, he said the original landscape would just be repaired because they didn’t have the funds, but they found a way to make it work.
“When we rolled out laptops, we gave every high school student a Windows laptop which are more expensive and we’ve decided to move now towards a strategy of just Chromebooks across high schools," Hernández said. "And so there's a substantially smaller price tag per Chromebook, and the amount of money that we estimated was a bit large compared to the need."
Hernández says that opens up about $12 million to be reallocated to artificial turf installation for every high school in TUSD with the exception of Tucson High, and starting with Pueblo and Sabino High Schools.
"Our goal is to do at least two high schools per year," Hernández said.
The Bond Oversight Committee approved it on May 15, and the Board approved on May 27.
The renovation will include new field goal posts, spaces for track and field events, and will be wide enough to not only accommodate football, but also soccer.
“Football Fridays at Pueblo and Sabino are gonna be a whole new experience," Hernández said.
Pueblo’s football team is looking forward to Friday night lights and embracing that school pride.
“Super excited to play on it for this upcoming year and go Warriors," Espinoza stated.
The field is expected to be completed and ready to go by the beginning of the '25-'26 school year.
Coach Lewis will be unveiling what the field will look like to his team on Tuesday.
"This has been a long time coming for all Pueblo Warriors, all of the community on the Southside, and I'm extremely proud," Coach Lewis said.
Hernández says the next thing they'll take a look at is tracks, but will cross that bridge when they get to it.
The next project TUSD is working on is starting to do the pre-planning design for brand new classrooms at three of their schools, Rincon, Davis and Tucson High's vocational building.
He adds that a local credit union will be donating funding to high schools for new scoreboards for various sports.
The schools chosen will be announced at the board meeting on June 17.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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