By Michael Butler

The changes at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium have been seen by many already with drone videos and photographs. Soon, fans will get the opportunity to see the Tallassee Tigers break in the new turf at their upgraded facility.

The $2.5 million project, funded by lodging taxes through the Elmore County Commission’s quality of life program, includes the installation of prescription grass on the game and practice fields. The school and county also chipped in to add a brand-new video scoreboard.

“The playing surface is ready,” said Tallassee City Schools superintendent Dr. Brock Nolin. “It looks good. We’ve got to finish up with some of our lighting.”

Nolin also spoke of other improvements.

“We redid all the guttering on the home side. It’s been since 2008 since we put that up. Although they used galvanized gutter, it still rusted. We painted the wall on the visitors’ side.

“We’re excited. Coach (L.A.) O’Neal’s got the guys ready to play. He’s been working them hard. That’s what you want to see in the off-season.”

O’Neal talked about the new look at O’Brien Stadium.

“We’ve got a lot of new stuff,” said O’Neal. “With the new turf, practice field and video board, we wanted to do something different with (uniforms). We did the gold jersey with gold pants and purple pants. We’ve got a new white jersey. It looks really good. You’ll have a different combination pretty much every game.”

O’Neal leaned towards donning the traditional purple jersey for the opener against Montgomery Academy at home on Aug. 22. Tallassee will host its Tiger Night and a jamboree game versus Jemison on Aug. 15.

In addition to work at the football field, Nolin noted that the wheels are turning to add a new track at Tallassee Elementary School.

“I’m waiting on contract documents,” he said. “It’s 120-day build time. Hopefully in the springtime we’ll have a new track facility. The playground area will be maintained. The track will be built behind that. There will be a construction fence to maintain P.E. activities. It’s going to be an Olympic-size track for all track-and-field events. We’ll actually be able to bid for events.”