By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

When football fans descend on Osceola High School for the Kowboys’ second home football game Oct. 1 against county rival Harmony, they may find parking, and getting around in general, to be a bit of a dusty grind.

But, as they always say, before things get better, they always get worse.

And things will be better, much, much better, on the Osceola High campus in the coming months, as the first phase of the campus’ renovation is completed. The construction crew of C.T. Hsu and Associates is nearing completion of the school’s new gymnasium and cafeteria building, and the adjoining performing arts center across the way.

The performing arts building will give the campus’ fine arts, chorus and band programs a place to put on concerts, plays and shows, along with giving entire classes a place to meet.

The gym building, located directly behind the football stadium, will put all of the school’s athletic programs within a concentrated area on the north side of the campus.

Both new buildings replace smaller – and much, much older – current facilities. The gym, for instance, has a patchwork roof on it thanks to Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Jim Bird, the school’s athletic director, said that he’s on the construction site about two or three times a week and has a hard time staying away and keeping his excitement in check about what is to come.

“It’s going to be a great facility. We’re excited. For the first time we’ll have every athletic program together,” he said. “And this new gym is about (the size of) three of our old gyms.

The gym will be large enough to hold a campus-wide assembly. But what folks who come for volleyball and basketball games won’t see is the infrastructure that’s essential to the school’s athletic program.

The building features six separate locker rooms, for physical education classes, the football, basketball and wrestling programs. The building also will house the weight room, wrestling mat room and athletic trainer’s room.

The building should be ready for occupancy in October and open for events (and lunch) in January, although Bird said he thinks it might open before the Christmas break.

The new performing arts center will have seating for 800, and is a little behind the gym and cafeteria building as far as its opening timetable.

“This new one makes the old one we had look like a closet,” Bird said.

The two new buildings are the first stage of the campus’ overhaul. Come February, many current buildings will begin coming down, housing the school in rows of portables for the better part of a year. Around that time, ground will break on a three-story instructional building.

It’s all in the name of progress and higher learning.

“It’s going to be crazy around here before it’s all done,” Bird said.

As for the football game, parking will be available at the front of the school and in parking lots off Ernest Street.

Bring your walking shoes.