Behind the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Campus lies an aging Lesley Field, the site of many games since its establishment in the 1960s. 

In recent years, the facility has hosted physical education classes, practices for freshman football and soccer teams, as well as city lacrosse and youth football organizations. 

Beginning this month and scheduled for completion by July 31, the stadium’s stands, press box, concession stands and restrooms are receiving $1.8 million renovations. The artificial turf field and track surface have already been replaced within the last year by the Northstar Builders Group. The proposed design for the changes is identical to the new restrooms and concession stands constructed at Coppell Middle School East at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year.

“We’ve done all this work to make this campus beautiful and new and nice and we have this incredible facility, but it isn’t up to speed with the rest of the facilities,” CHS9 Principal Cody Koontz said. “I’m really excited about it; it’s another piece of the campus we can be proud of.”

Lesley Field is part of an interlocal agreement between the City of Coppell and Coppell ISD, which allows both school and local teams to use the field. The contract stipulates the city can make use of the space when it is not in use by the district. 

“It’s just good for us to have another home field we can bring teams to,” Coppell boys soccer coach James Balcom said. “We run a pretty large varsity tournament and then we host a JV and JV2 tournament. [The freshmen] use the field every day for practice. I’m interested to see what the city is going to do as far as the rest of the renovations.”

As a result of this agreement, the cost of the improvements is being split between CISD and the City of Coppell, which will contribute $800,000 each as approved on Jan. 14. The motion to replace the bleachers and press box was approved by the CISD Board of Trustees on Jan. 13. 

In 1967, the current ninth grade campus was Coppell’s high school. In that era, Lesley Field was the site of several football games played by the “Coppell Tigers” and became an important location in CISD.

“Lesley Field was the original CISD competition field,” Coppell ISD Athletic Director Kit Pehl said. “Over the years, it’s become an auxiliary field with as much history as Buddy Echols [Field]. The construction will make it a more viable option to utilize and allow our teams to diversify the fields to play on.”

The use of the space by both the city and district allows the freshman campus to become a bigger part of the Coppell community.

“In our area, with the business park nearby, we’re not in a neighborhood,” Koontz said. “Lesley Field is a unique way we get to partner with the community that may be different than most schools. Anytime you can get people to the campus to see it and experience it, that’s a win for us.”

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