KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — With the school year and high school football underway, San Benito kicked off their year with a bang. Amongst the school board and elected officials was former NFL and University of Texas quarterback Vince Young who served as a special guest speaker.
On Thursday, San Benito broke ground on their Indoor Multi-Purpose Athletic Facility. The project will provide an indoor facility for all sports including cheer and band.
“The whole community is excited about the facility,” said Greyhound head coach Dan Gomez. “Our football, cross country and volleyball teams are in full swing and are focused on the task at hand which is their season but as the kids start to see the facility being built the excitement will grow even more.”
The facility is estimated to be completed in four to five months and will be over 70,000 square feet and will include an indoor turf for all athletics along with a weight room that will be over 10,000 square feet.
Brownsville Rivera is the only other program in the Rio Grande Valley that is home to an indoor facility.
Young spoke to the Greyhound football team at their annual Meet the Greyhounds pep rally and later addressed those gathered for the event.
“My trip has been great so far, I’m just doing what I always do and that is giving back to the community,”Young said. “We want to make sure that the younger generation knows that we care a lot about them and we want to see them succeed.”
Young was pleased to see the new facility being built and sees it as an opportunity to give back to the athletes with the new facility.
“As you can see here in San Benito we are having this groundbreaking facility,
Young said. “We are seeing a lot of kids passing away because of the heat, so it is great to see the community put their stamp on it and them taking care of their kids. It is a major stepping stone for letting our community to let the parents know we care about their kids and I’m happy to be here and support them.”