After a year-long delay, construction on the new turf field finally began on June 26 as part of the $2.44 billion Austin ISD modernization bond passed by voters in 2022. Under this bond, the new field will include lights, concession stands and bleachers, allowing the soccer and football teams to host home games at McCallum for the first time in over 20 years. While many athletes are excited to play on a new field, construction on the new field is estimated to end in December, temporarily displacing every sport that utilizes the track and field for practice and conditioning. Soccer, cross country, football and ultimate frisbee have had to discover new spaces and alternate ways to practice for the duration of the fall semester. 

Football, for one, has had to bus to House Park to practice, hosting their first practice there on Aug. 4 and every practice since then. According to head football coach and athletic director Thomas Gammerdinger, the team’s leadership worked with Jason Glenn, the districtwide athletic director, to find a place to play after realizing they wouldn’t have access to McCallum’s field during their season. However, Gammerdinger doesn’t see the temporary move to House Park, a turf field, as a negative.

“Practicing on turf is a huge, huge advantage,” Gammerdinger said. “It definitely makes a difference for practice.”

Specifically, practicing on turf at House Park allows the team to do more tackling drills, because the surface is softer than McCallum’s old grass field. Another benefit of practicing at House Park is the stadium’s permanent landmarks and hashes, which the team previously had to paint onto the McCallum field every week. Not having to draw these lines allows the team to have more practice time and run more advanced drills. 

“Every week we’d go and paint a bunch of landmarks, hashes, and the numbers,” Gammerdinger said. “They’re not just for spectators to see what yard line they’re on. Like kids are running routes and dropping to zones based on those landmarks, so having them out there is a huge advantage.”

Senior tight end Alex Hopper also agrees that the team has been dramatically able to improve its plays due to the ability to practice more advanced drills with clear hashes and landmarks.

“It’s more exact to games and lets us practice realistic situations,” Hopper said. “Last year, we just estimated where the hash lines were, so it honestly just gives us a better preparation for the game.”

Hopper also said practicing where his team plays will give them an advantage when it’s game time, as the varsity football team plays eight of its 12 games at House Park.

“The only difference from game time is that there are extra people,” Hopper said.

While Hopper enjoys practicing at House Park, he does acknowledge that it creates some logistical issues. As a senior, Hopper has his driver’s license, but many of his teammates who are underclassmen do not, and have to bus to and from school to House Park every day. Additionally, House Park doesn’t have a clear storage area for McCallum’s equipment, which presents some problems for the team.

 “It’s been a little of an inconvenience, but I think it’s all worth it in the end just to be able to play,” Hopper said.

Another sport that has had to move its practice to a different place is cross country. This year, they held their time trials at Lamar Middle School’s track. Since then, the team has been going on runs through the neighborhood in the morning to prepare for their meets. According to senior Maddie O’Connor, the loss of the track has most influenced the team’s interval training and conditioning.

“We used the track all the time for warm-ups and cooldowns,” O’Connor said. “We also used it for workouts and interval training quite often.”

Although O’Connor misses the track, she believes the temporary loss of it will be worth it in the long run.

“I’m excited to have turf on the new field because doing stretches on it will be nice,” O’Connor said. “I’m glad we won’t have to deal with dirt kicking up because that made it harder to breathe when running.” 

 Ultimate frisbee, one of the lesser-known sports at McCallum, has also had to find another way to get in playing time before their spring season starts. As there aren’t enough people at McCallum to form a team, McCallum ultimate frisbee players teamed up with athletes from Anderson to create a combined team, “McAnderson”. The team plans to practice at Anderson High School as well as Pillow Elementary, which is between McCallum and Anderson. 

Although some people might question teaming up with a school that is regarded as a rival to McCallum in most sports, junior and five-year ultimate frisbee player Marley Coulbury feels like the collaboration is the only reason the team is able to continue preparing for their spring season.

“We will have a place to practice, but that’s only because we’re lucky enough to have combined with another school,” Coulbury said.

 However, one program that hasn’t had the opportunity to practice on any field, be it Anderson or House Park, is the girls’ soccer team. The team originally hoped they would be able to practice at Nelson or House Park, where it held some practices over the summer, or even at a community field. All the fields were booked because five other Austin ISD schools are remodeling their fields right now, so most district fields are being used by football teams who are in season. Senior Ava Dallesandro wished her team had the opportunity to practice on a field.  

“I would say everyone on the team is definitely feeling the frustration that we can’t play,” Dallesandro said. “This is a team of people who love to play soccer, so that’s kind of being taken away from us in this moment, which is hard to grapple with because we only get so much time to play with these people.”

Instead of focusing on the negatives of not having a field, the program has instead found new ways to continue practicing. In the past, the team would prepare for the season through a mixture of ball control drills on the field, conditioning in the mat room, and strength training in the weight room. This year, the team has had to spend a lot more time on the strength and conditioning portion of the offseason. Dallesandro also feels like the increased time in the weight room has improved her and her teammates’ mental strength alongside their physicality.

“The constant practice in the weight room is also really good mentally,” Dallesandro said. “It’s good to keep yourself engaged and pushing yourself. Lifting weights three times a week on the whistle is hard, and it’s hard for everybody.”

One problem with relying so much on the weight room is that head girls’ soccer coach Jason Rich is unable to see the skills of some of his newer players. In total, the soccer program has 60 athletes in fourth and eighth period combined, and Rich expects another five to ten players to join from volleyball and basketball in the spring. To get some idea of players’ ball control and other skill sets, Rich has begun to use other sports’ fields that aren’t under construction, including the tennis courts and softball field. Rich has enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with other coaches in this way.

“Coaches that give us a heads up when there’s a space open have been invaluable to our program,” Rich said. “We understand we’re in someone else’s space and they don’t have to give us time in their areas, so we’re very thankful. We just approach it with a lot of gratitude.”

Although having to find new places to practice in has led to some complications for the program, for Rich, it is only a part of what he hopes will be the team’s climb to success. 

“We’re not going to use any of our training environment or our facilities as an excuse ever,” Rich said. “For us, it’s going to be a great part of our story as far as when we do have success this year, we can say we still did it despite these hurdles we had to jump over.”