KENNEBUNK — The effort to renovate Kennebunk High School’s athletic complex began with a walk in 2020. Then RSU 21 School Board Chair Art LeBlanc joined Dr. Terri Cooper, who had just come on as school superintendent, to tour the old complex and survey the disrepair.

“Dr. Cooper looked at me and said ‘We have to fix this,'” LeBlanc recalled.

Over three years later, Kennebunk High School now boasts a new $4.2 million athletic complex with a track and sports field. Gone are the days of field flooding, poor lighting and non-ADA compliant seating. A football game between the Kennebunk Rams and the Marshwood Hawks on Friday, Oct. 20, will serve as the official celebration for the complex. Donors will be announced and recognized during halftime.

LeBlanc said he played a key role in seeing the new complex through to fruition, securing cost estimates from an engineering firm and overseeing the fundraising process that brought in $350,000 from dozens of donors. Some of the project’s biggest donors included the Tommy McNamara Charitable Foundation, which gave over $50,000, and Garrett Pillsbury Plumbing and Heating, which donated over $25,000.

The new athletic facility is a point of pride for the school, said LeBlanc. It can now host now host regional and state events thanks to the upgrade. Bringing in student athletes from around the region and state could further raise the profile of the high school, which was already ranked as the second best high school in Maine by US News & World Report last year. The school was also recently recognized by Special Olympics North America for implementing an inclusive sports program, that engages both students with and without disabilities.

It’s fitting that the Kennebunk’s football team will inaugurate the athletic facility, given that they’re also a point of pride for the school. They’re ranked first in their region and started the season with an impressive string of wins, though they lost their latest game to South Portland High School, which is in a different region, on Oct. 13.

In addition to lacking ADA-compliant seating at the main field, the old athletic complex was beset by issues that interfered with athletic programming.

“The whole complex had fallen into such a level of degradation that the track was no longer usable for meets,” said LeBlanc. Another issue was drainage. “The field would also get so wet that it wasn’t usable. Or, if it was usable, the field would be highly degraded, which made it unsafe to play on.”

The new playing field is made of synthetic material, instead of grass. When considering which material to use for the new field, the school went for quality, according to LeBlanc. “[The new turf] It has what they call a high density and infill so it helps reduce the incidence of concussion.”

LeBlanc urged community members to attend the big game on Friday, Oct. 20.

“It’s been a phenomenal thing to see the field being used at games.”

 

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