This story is written by Andrew Dixon as part of LINK nky’s partnership with Northern Kentucky University
If you live in the Taylor Mill area or just driving through, you may have noticed an uptick in construction on Scott High School’s campus.
“We are building a new pool, a band practice lot and a new auxiliary gym,” said Scott Athletic Director Casey Fisk. “We are also renovating our baseball field, auditorium, tennis court and competition gym.”
The purpose for these renovations and new projects are to keep the facilities up to date, Fisk said, and the school wanted better facilities for their student athletes.
The funding for these projects is coming from bonded money within the Kenton County School District.
Chris Stapleton, who is a SITE base member, teacher and assistant basketball coach at Scott, said the total cost for these projects was roughly 16 million dollars in total.
The projects were delayed a few years due to COVID-19 and Kenton County Schools having to spend $17 million to update their security in all schools when security mandates in schools changed for the state of Kentucky.
Scott is the only school in the Northern Kentucky area with a regulation pool for competitive swimming, so Scott and other schools have to find a secondary location for swim meets until the pool is ready to go.
That secondary location will be Silverlake Aquatic Center in Crestview Hills because it is regulation size for regional competitions, Stapleton said.
The new pool at Scott will be regulation size to be able to host region and possibly state events.
As for the gym, it has only been renovated once and is in need of updates, officials said.
The renovations include: new paint, banner replacements, replacing the hardwood floor, new set of bleachers, new entry way to the gym and new locker rooms.
With the new gym renovations, there has been speculation that Scott will have to move their home games to away games, but Stapleton quashed those rumors.
“We will 100% play in the gym next basketball season, it’ll be 2023/2024 that all construction should be completed, but the December gym renovations should be finished,” Stapleton said.
Sophomore Dylan Giffen, who plays basketball at Scott High School, will be a part of the first senior class to play in the newly renovated gym.
“I think the new (auxiliary) gym can really help us get more time in the gym since there are other teams that also need to practice and it is hard to get as much time as you want to work on your game, and I believe it will help us be more successful,” Giffen said. “It is pretty special to be given the opportunity to be the first to play in the new gym, and hopefully my class can leave on a good note and give the athletes younger than us a good idea of what they should do and what is expected of them to do in the new gym.”
Scott is the smallest high school in terms of number of students in the district behind Dixie Heights and Simon Kenton. Stapleton hopes with their sports complexes being built/renovated that changes.
“I hope people notice the effort that Scott is making, not only with their sports complexes, but their school in general can make it a more attractive destination via open-enrollment,” Stapleton said.