New soccer fields, volleyball court coming to Bayou Country Sports Park in Houma
Officials broke ground Monday on a $2.9 million addition to Houma's Bayou Country Sports Park that will include two soccer fields and a volleyball court.
The addition to the park, at 4374 La. 311, will also install stadium-style lighting at the new soccer fields, extend a road 1,500 feet and add a parking lot with 250 spaces. Work is expected by be complete in May.
"This is the first time in history that soccer players here have had lights; that cuts into training time," said Clay Duplantis, president of the Houma-Terrebonne Soccer Association, whose roughly 1,200 players use the fields. "So it has a massive impact."
The 140-acre park already has baseball and soccer fields, ponds, a splash park, concession stands and a fishing pond.
Director Dean Schouest said the park brought in about $1 million last year, mostly in concession sales, and has an operating cost of roughly $800,000 a year.
The two new regulation-size soccer fields are 330 feet long and 165 feet wide. They will have sprinkler systems built in and drainage to keep them dry for games.
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Not far from the expansion are two similar-size soccer fields surrounded by lights on generators that were added recently.
In the spring, the current fields are mostly used for recreation, while in the fall it's almost entirely competitive. Because of this, the two competitive-style fields are broken up into six smaller ones. This is done by planting grass so the areas grow green at different times of the year.
As elected officials celebrated the groundbreaking, children played soccer in the neighboring fields.
Courtney Savoie and Jason Navarre watched as the children, all members of the Houma-Terrebonne Soccer Association, practiced. Savoie said the lighting alone has meant that parents like her haven't had to rush from work to practice to ensure their children have time to train.
Navarre credited Schouest for pushing to fix up the fields and promote soccer over the past couple of years.
"He's really turned everything around," Navarre said.
Their kids, Tripp Savoie and Uriah Navarre, said the current soccer fields used to have holes in them and now they're much nicer.
Duplantis said the new fields with lighting will allow the association to offer new programs, host larger tournaments and bring in more teams from out of town to compete. That would help players hone their skills against a wider array of teams and bringing in more people to shop and spend money locally.
Dove said plans include buying another 25 acres and adding five baseball fields and tennis courts.
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Houma's Bayou Country Sports Park is expanding. Here's what's in store.
