Phase II of the Sumrall Sumrall Sports Complex, which will include eight new tennis courts and other amenities at the site off of Mississippi 42, got its ceremonial start with an August 1 groundbreaking attended by city and other local officials.
Along with the courts, the site also will include a facility which – for the time being – will support both tennis and soccer with locker rooms, storage, concessions and public restrooms, with additional offerings expected in the future.
“I am tremendously excited about this,” Mayor Joel Lofton said. “This project started based off parental and community interest back in 2017 and funding was made available to the Town of Sumrall years ago, and it’s been here waiting to be spent.
“So to be able to come in with a great board and actually get this project moving (is great), and we started early in this term trying to move this forward and pick it up. We expect contractors to be on site within days.”
Prior to this project, tennis players, including students and coaches, in the town have lacked a local home court on which to practice or play the sport. Because of that, players often have to travel to Tatum Park in Hattiesburg for the activity.
“We’re excited that we’re going to have facilities here for our community, for our students,” Lofton said. “Right now, the Sumrall tennis players, who have done very well at the high school level over the last few years, they have to travel 30 minutes one way to practice and to compete.
“We have one older court in town that we currently are re-working, but one court is simply not enough for a high school tennis team to practice on. So to have these facilities, it’s a great benefit. We have some students who have completed the program in Sumrall, and I believe have earned scholarships based on their success in the sport, so this is a great opportunity and we’re happy to be bringing it forward.”
Plans for Phase II began in 2021 for the site, which had seen extensive work over the previous months. As part of that, town officials received $600,000 from the Mississippi House of Representatives, which was secured with the help of District 101 Representative Kent McCarty and District 41 Senator Joey Fillingane. Previously, Fillingane helped secure funding for work at the sports complex under two initiatives: $500,000 through the BP Settlement Bill and $2 million from Senate Bill 3065.
The $500,000 is part of $70 million distributed statewide as part of a BP settlement. That bill – formally known as Senate Bill 2002 – was the result of Mississippi’s lawsuit against the oil giant for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in which 210 million gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
Under Senate Bill 3065, Sumrall received $2 million for its recreational facilities, part of $207 million in state-issued bonds for several projects and educational institutions around the state.
“It is an honor to be here, and we’re just really excited,” Fillingane said. “We’ve been working on this project for quite some time.
“Now to actually see … the tennis courts coming up (is great). I’m just really excited.”
Although several weather issues caused delays on Phase 1 of the Sumrall Sports Complex, officials were able to complete new driveway, a parking lot and striping for the site. In early 2020, several loads of dirt were installed at the soccer field to help with some long-standing drainage issues.
“In the future, we are looking to expand to another soccer field and facility, and potentially youth baseball and softball fields,” Lofton said. “But that will be a little bit in the future.”
