Berry and Clay Construction was contracted to build the state-of-the-art athletic complex.

Less than a year ago, the area behind Bullard Elementary School was nothing more than grass and dirt. Now, it’s home to the newest, state-of-the-art athletic facility that will cater to the Panthers baseball, softball and tennis teams.

“This is such an exciting time for our kids… for the community,” said Superintendent Dr. Jack Lee. “This has been in the works for more than three years and we could not have been more pleased with it.”

The complex, which hosted its grand opening Thursday evening, was made possible thanks to the voter-approved bond project from 2022. It features covered batting cages, in-dugout team restroom facilities, spectator restrooms and full concessions.

Panther baseball parents like Delisa Dobrinski are especially excited.

“It’s so pretty and nice, and my goodness, it’s so big!” she said. “It’s really nice having everything right there together with the concession stand and the restrooms and everything. I appreciate all the thought and effort that went into planning this. They did a really good job getting it all together.”

Both baseball and softball fields will have artificial turf, which will make it easier to maintain and provide a more consistent playing surface. It will also allow games to be played in inclement weather conditions, such as rain.

The complex includes a huge upgrade for the tennis teams — 12 courts.

“We could not be more excited about this new facility,” said Josh Boyd, head tennis coach. “This has been a long time coming for us.”

The old tennis facilities, behind the middle school, had four courts, which hindered the ability to play home games, as Texas UIL requires at least six courts to host tennis matches.

The Bullard tennis teams, which boast nearly 130 players in both middle school and high school, had been utilizing Tyler Junior College’s tennis courts for home games for several years.

“It’s going to be nice to be able to just go home after a tournament and not have to drive so far,” Boyd said. “We’re going to try to get a lot of students out and make some announcements and make it fun and make it a good atmosphere for our kids to be able to play in and have a home court they want to play at and defend. We’ll get some victories over here and it will help the program grow.”

The facility is part of Proposition B of Bond 2022, a $21 million project that included the construction of the athletic complex, as well as the new multipurpose facility, which has not been completed just yet.

“We still have some work to do, most of the stuff that is outstanding are very small things, minor touch-up painting type issues,” Lee said.

A variety of weather conditions temporarily halted some of the construction, but it was a factor that was included in the plans.

Other than a few small finishing touches, Lee said, “We’re operational. Our kids have actually started practicing on these fields.”

In addition to the athletic complex, the bond also included Proposition A, an $82 million expansion to have new middle schools to serve sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, as well as renovations to the existing middle school to create an intermediate campus.

According to Lee, a demographic study was conducted to gauge the growing community.

“We knew that our enrollment was increasing as a district,” Lee said. “We knew that there were things happening — that we were growing. The study told us what we pretty much already knew… that we were growing pretty fast — faster than we had originally anticipated.”

In efforts to figure out the best way to accommodate the growing population, the Board of Trustees put together a group of community members with the objective of looking at what was needed.

“Their job was to look at what we have going on in the district,” Lee said. “What do the facilities look like? Where are the areas that we need to grow? Where are the areas that we need to be prepared for?”

The proposition will also allow new additions to combine Bullard Primary and Bullard Elementary, as well as renovations to the high school kitchen and cafeteria.

“Thankfully, our community was 100% receptive to our needs and the bond overwhelmingly passed, which brought us to today,” Lee said.

The $103 million bond was voted on during the May 2022 election, with Proposition A passing with 827-562 votes and Proposition B passing 765-623.

“Bullard is a very special place and I think it is special because people care so deeply about our schools; they care about our kids,” Lee said. “I’m just so thankful that we have a community that sees the need, sees what our kids need and what they could have to make them even better. The community not only embraced that, they approved it and we’re just so thankful for that.”