By TOM CALLIS
By TOM CALLIS
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Waiakea High School is hoping to finish what it started over four years ago with the construction of its new, but limited, track and field.
Tommy Correa, Waiakea athletic director, said the school expects to award a construction contract by July for a synthetic turf, new soccer goals and a storage building.
Waiakea would also get track equipment, which it currently lacks, as part of the project estimated at about $2.4 million.
“We currently have an oval that you can practice on,” he said, adding that most sport games have to be held at other facilities.
Construction would begin in November and take six to eight months to complete.
Correa said artificial turf is needed to allow for year-round use of the field, built in November 2007.
The field doesn’t hold up well with Hilo’s relentless rainfall, he said.
Currently, only soccer games are held there.
“… The field will never hold up for a year’s worth of football,” Correa said.
The school initially hoped for a more complete facility but had to pull back once construction costs skyrocketed, he said.
“The only thing … that survived the bidding was the eight-lane oval,” Correa said.
In 2009, volunteers spread 500 cubic yards of dirt to level the track’s infield.
After the next phase is complete, Waiakea also wants to add bleachers, bathrooms and lights, Correa said.
Currently, there is no seating, which limits the school’s ability to host games.
“Eventually, we want to get a stadium,” he said.
“A full blown stadium complex so we can ask it to be named Kenneth Yamase stadium.”
Yamase was the school’s former athletic director who had worked for 17 years to get the track.
He died after leaving the school, Correa said.
The state Legislature this year allocated $500,000 toward future track and field improvements.
Correa said he hopes the additional work, which could cost another couple million dollars, will be done in the next two years.
“My wishful thinking would be the 2014 school year so we can have facilities to host track meets … and home football,” he said.
The next phase, to begin this year, is already paid for, Correa said.
Soccer players will likely be displaced during construction next school year, he said.
But he thinks the disruption will be worth it.
“It will just be a boon to the school to have additional facilities,” Correa said.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.