Serenaded by the Bobcat Marching Band’s rendition of the Bobcat Fight Song, the newly upgraded Marshalltown High School Stadium Complex was officially introduced to the public on Friday night as Marshalltown Superintendent Dr. Theron Schutte called to attention all of the donors and businesses that helped make this grand upgrade a reality.

Four and a half months after construction crews began tearing down the former Leonard Cole Field, its beautiful facelift revealed a modern, state-of-the-art facility that Schutte and the entire community can be proud of.

A couple hundred supporters showed up to take in the new venue after Bobcat senior football player Treshaun Brooks accepted the ceremonial scissors and conducted the ribbon-cutting to the gateway of the complex.

“It’s a lot of excitement, a lot of pride for our kids, for our coaches and for our community,” Schutte said of Friday’s gathering. “Obviously by current standards, looking at other schools this is long overdue, but it’s not easy to pull it off. We wanted to make sure if we did it, we did it right, and I think for the most part people would agree that we did it to the highest quality we could at this time.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - A new Bobcat statue is featured inside the entrance to the newly renovated Leonard Cole Field. The Marshalltown High School class of 1981 donated the Bobcat, which was installed earlier Friday.

“I’m really thrilled and excited about seeing the number of people that came out there for our grand opening on a Friday night.”

Representatives from the Marshalltown High School athletic teams that will get to play their home events on the newly surfaced track or synthetic field turf playing surface it encompasses included Bobcat girls and boys soccer, girls and boys track, football, cheerleading, marching band and color guard.

FEH Design and Larson Construction were at center stage as well for their roles in creating the project and completing it in roughly four and a half months.

Bobcat athletic director Ryan Isgrig called it an emotional moment “in a good way.”

“Marshalltown deserves it,” he said. “Watching the progress since April, it’s finally come together and it’s ready to go. We’re really excited.

“It’s rewarding. It’s something that’s been talked about long since I’ve been here. A lot of people doubted if it would actually happen and I had my doubts at times, too, but it’s finally here and it was needed and our kids and coaches … Marshalltown deserves it. It’s a dream come true.”

The first sporting events to try out the new surface will be Marshalltown’s freshman and varsity football games on Sept. 8 against Davenport North. Marshalltown’s eighth-grade football game against Urbandale scheduled for Sept. 7 has been moved to Franklin Field to allow contractors one more needed day to complete all the necessary tasks before next Friday’s debut.

“If you put a kid out for an activity in an old, torn or dirty uniform, it’s going to be hard for them to feel prideful about that,” Schutte said. “If you have inadequate or antiquated facilities, it’s kind of the same thing — especially when you see what other student-athletes have. It’s super cool for our community because we haven’t had this before, but our kids and our coaches deserve it and hopefully it will increase participation and drive to be as successful as they can be.

“You certainly don’t want your kids to have anything less than what other people have, within reason. Every kid should have an equitable opportunity and equitable high-quality facilities to go to school to learn and participate in their activities whether it’s the fine arts or athletics.”

Jean Berger, the executive director of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, and Jason Eslinger, the associate director, were on hand along with Iowa High School Athletic Association executive director Tom Keating to observe the new facility.

“First, we’re just here to support the kids and the community and all the work the school has put into this and to show our appreciation,” Berger said. “What a great thing. This is very well done.

“You have to remember that this is a classroom. This is where coaches coach. You have chemistry labs you spend a lot of money on — and rightly so. You have marching band and music and theater and all your activities, to this is just another classroom where your kids are going to learn and grow, so they deserve it.”

Iowa high schools’ governing bodies admitted to scouting the new venue for its potential to serve as a postseason host to soccer and track events. Berger and Eslinger are in attendance every year for the state girls’ swimming and diving championships at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA, and the new Marshalltown Court Complex has already brought added events to the community.

“You can just tell right away they did this right,” Eslinger said. “As they say, if you build it, we’ll come. This will be a great venue for track and field as well as soccer. It’s done right. This is a gigantic upgrade.”

The facility required just over $6 million to complete, and an additional $3.4 million in grant money from the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be applied for construction of a storm shelter next year.

“A lot of people judge communities on their athletic facilities, so when they come to a tennis meet or drive down Bobcat Boulevard, visit the Roundhouse, wrestling facility and now this, there’s nothing but positive energy with our community and visiting communities,” Isgrig said. “Everywhere we go, schools already have facilities like this and a lot of those schools are way smaller than us and don’t have as much community support already have facilities like this. It’s just a great facility for our kids to use and I think it’s really promising for the benefits that our kids will get from this.”