Ysleta High football returns to renovated Hutchins Stadium for title defense

Ysleta High School's football team will play its first home game of the season Friday, Sept. 4, against Burges High School at Hutchins Stadium, a venue that underwent a $1.8 million renovation to address drainage problems that had warped the decade-old artificial turf, according to El Paso Matters.

The project finished ahead of schedule. Ysleta Independent School District officials had initially expected the work to disrupt the Indians' home schedule for at least part of this season.

Head coach Joe Martinez, who played as a wide receiver at Ysleta in 1997 and attended the school as a student, said the completion mattered most to his players. "The kids, they deserve it," Martinez said. "You know, they work really hard and the community gets to be part of it. We're ready to go."

Ysleta claimed its first district title in 28 years last October when the team defeated Riverside 61-50 at Hutchins to clinch the District 1-4A championship after a 9-0 start. Martinez had shared a district championship as a junior in 1997 with Riverside. The championship marked his first district title in a decade as head coach.

This season, the school also marks 100 years since becoming an accredited four-year high school. Hutchins Stadium, which opened Sept. 15, 1939, and was dedicated that November, sits at the center of a campus designed by architect Henry Trost and completed in 1929. The stadium cost $50,000 when it opened and was named for C.A. Hutchins, then president of the Ysleta school board.

The Hutchins renovation is part of a broader districtwide effort to maintain athletic facilities. YISD budgeted $3.1 million this summer to replace turf at six other high school football fields, all of which date to a 2016 installation from a $430.5 million bond program voters approved in 2015.

The district identified nearly $72 million in deferred-maintenance needs this summer, ranging from roofs and air-conditioning systems to buses and athletic facilities. In June, trustees authorized the district to pay up to $65 million for eligible projects using tax notes to be repaid over 10 to 15 years. The investments come as YISD faces declining enrollment and financial pressures.