ELLISVILLE – A quick trip through the campus of Jones County Junior College reveals plenty of work is being done on several of the school’s athletic fields.

Dirt work has been going on for around six weeks on the new soccer field, while renovations to the baseball and softball fields have been under way for a couple of weeks.

JCJC Athletic Director Katie Herrington said Bobcat fans will like what they see once all of the projects are completed.

“We are going to have some outstanding facilities,” she said Monday. “They will be first-class all the way. They will all have a similar look.”

The most immediate concern is the new soccer field, which is located on Augusta Road on the southeast part of campus. The Bobcats have a home scrimmage scheduled for Aug. 22 vs. Meridian Community College and will play their home opener on Sept. 1 vs. Itawamba Community College.

Herrington said the JCJC grounds crew wants to have the field ready for play by Aug. 15.

“We started on the irrigation system for the soccer field today,” she said. “We hope to have the field sodded and ready for play by August 15. That is our target date.”

Plans call for a concession stand and restroom facilities to be built at the soccer field, too. Bleachers may be moved from the baseball and softball fields to provide seating initially, but that is still to be determined.

“We are opening bids on Sept. 4 for the concession stand and restroom areas,” she said. “We hope the field is ready for the season, but we probably will not have the restrooms and concession stand to use this year.”

The Bobcat soccer teams will be able to use the football practice field for their upcoming summer camps. Plans are still in the works to find other fields to use for practice until the new field is ready for play.

On the baseball and softball fields, everything will change outside of the fences.

There will be new dugouts, bleachers and a press box at both fields. There will be a new concession stand and admission gate that will be used for both fields. It will be located in the central area between the two fields.

On the softball field, a new irrigation system has already been installed. The field will stay the same.

“It’s an excellent playing surface,” said Herrington. “We will not have to do any dirt work on the softball field.”

On the baseball field, the entire outfield grass has been stripped up and the outfield wall has been removed. In fact, some of the sod from the outfield has been used to sod the outside areas of the new soccer field.

“We have to do more dirt work than we anticipated on the baseball field, but we want it done right,” said Herrington. “We had to level the playing field because there was such a dropoff in the outfield. That gives you better drainage.

“We hope to install a new irrigation system on the baseball field in the next week or so and we will also have a new drainage system for that field.”

The infield grass will remain untouched.

Bids for the concession stand, restrooms, bleachers, press boxes and dugouts for both the baseball and softball fields will also be opened on Sept. 4.

As of now, the plans are for the baseball and softball fields to be ready for play during the 2010 season.

“We do hope to be playing on those fields next spring, but we don’t know if they will be ready by the start of the season,” said Herrington. “We certainly hope so.”

It is not known at this point how fall practice for baseball and softball will be affected. It depends on the progress of the fields at that time.

Still, the fact work is now being done on the fields is a major step forward and sends a positive message for athletics at JCJC.

“We are excited for these projects to get started,” said Herrington. “It is great to see dirt being moved and we look forward to our teams playing on these new fields.”