Howard Fellows Stadium getting face-lift ahead of 2024 season

La Salle-Peru High School’s Howard Fellows Stadium is getting a major face-lift before the 2024 season.

The $2.6 million project includes concrete restoration throughout the stadium, remodeled bathrooms, repainting and signage throughout the stadium.

“We’re excited to continue making improvements to our facilities,” L-P Superintendent Steve Wrobleski said.

Wrobleski said that after years of ongoing repair work to the concrete, it was necessary to do more extensive repairs.

“The last time the stadium really had a major face-lift with the concrete work was back in the mid-[19]90s, when the whole stadium was kind of torn down and rebuilt,” Wrobleski said. “We’re at the point now [where] we’re no longer able to continue just doing more touch-up repairs, so that’s why we’re doing a full-scale restoration to the concrete.”

The concrete work includes the home side, near the press box, bathrooms and the surrounding bowl wall.

Vissering, a company out of Streator, is doing the work.

“They have a tool that uses sound waves to determine where there’s weak areas in the concrete that you wouldn’t necessarily see visually, and there’s a lot of areas that need restoration,” Wrobleski said.

All the bathrooms in the stadium are being gutted, and new toilets, dividers, stalls, sinks and electrical lighting systems are being installed.

New press box windows and new signage also is being added.

“A big part of it is the branding with signage,” Wrobleski said. “It’s going to be all L-P branding, a lot of red and green. There’ll be new signage for all the entrances, directions to restrooms, the football field markers on the stadium walls. When you walk in, you’re going to feel even more red and green than you have previously.”

The majority of the $2.6 million cost of the project was included in the funding for phase two of the athletic complex construction, with additional money coming from health, life and safety funds.

“We planned for this,” Wrobleski said. “When we funded the cost of phase two of the sports complex, we also budgeted into the bonds that we sold the dollar value to be able to repair the stadium. We had to add in about a half a million more through health, life [and] safety based on the assessment of the concrete repairs. We have all the money budgeted for it, so from a taxpayer standpoint, it’s not going to have any impact.”

The stadium will be ready for the football season, although some of the work will continue into October. The football team and marching band will have access to the field for camps and preseason practices while the work is underway.

“The facility will be ready for football season. However, the concrete work in totality will be completed around October, but it won’t have any impact in terms of seating or access for the football team or marching band for practice,” Wrobleski said. “As part of the bid specifications, we gave them dates they had to work around for the football team and marching band to have access to the field.”

Wrobleski said it’s important to maintain L-P’s historic stadium for the future.

“I think what it communicates is there is a value for what I would say is the most iconic high school football stadium in the entire Midwest,” Wrobleski said. “It’s an important part of our history, and we’re doing our part to ensure that it’s going to be rock solid for the next 20 to 25 years.”