Immaculata-La Salle breaks ground for new athletic facilities

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Immaculata-La Salle High School will soon have the athletic field they have been dreaming about for years.

“We are embarking on our legacy and finally starting to work on much needed renovations,” said Salesian Sister Kim Keraitis, the school’s principal, during a groundbreaking ceremony for the new athletic facilities, held June 1, 2022. “It’s taken a long time. Now we are actually doing something. “

The upgrades will take place in three phases and will change the landscape of the bayside campus, which lies between the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove.

Phase One is a $10.5 million project and Phase Two will cost $3.5 million. The first two phases will include home grandstands for 1,000 spectators with modernized press box, public restrooms, a multipurpose athletic field for football, soccer, baseball and lacrosse teams, a field house with locker rooms, a state-of-the-art training and rehabilitation facility, coaches’ offices and a strength training room. In addition, there will be tennis courts, space for beach volleyball, and a sports pavilion for dance and cheerleading that also could accommodate sports such as wrestling. Artificial turf will replace the football field grass. The track around the football field will be removed to add space for the upgrades.

Phase Three will focus on academics, Sister Kim said. “We will construct a Net-Zero STEM building, built environmentally friendly. It will offset its own energy consumption at a cost of $15 million. We are hoping to complete these projects within five years.”

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.

The Salesian Sisters administer the 870-student archdiocesan high school. Their educational philosophy is that of their founder, St. John Bosco, who espoused the values of reason, religion and loving kindness with a goal of producing good Christians and honest citizens.

Immaculata Academy for girls opened in 1958 and in 1962 La Salle High School for boys joined Immaculata to become a co-educational school.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a 1996 Immaculata-La Salle graduate, was among the officials turning the shovel at the groundbreaking. Suarez said his father, a former Miami mayor, helped fundraise for the school gym. Now, it was the current mayor’s time to donate.

“I will give $5,000 to this project,” said Mayor Suarez, wearing a navy blue Royal Lions baseball cap and green ILS shirt with a Royal Lion, the school’s mascot, emblazoned on it. “I went here 26 years ago. This school gave me purpose and joy. These buildings are much bigger than stone. I feel the presence of Don Bosco’s spirit here. He embraced those who have challenges and this school helps promote those ideals.”

Also present at the groundbreaking was Julian Rodriguez, ILS class of 1969. He recalled the limited athletic facilities when he attended the school.

“The football field and track were built in the late 1960s,” he said. “I remember there was an open field where Mercy Hospital’s parking garage is now where we played. We didn’t have a gym, so our basketball team practiced at the Boys and Girls Club nearby. We played our home games at Christopher Columbus High School’s gym.”

Archdiocese of Miami School Superintendent Jim Riggs said the new facilities will benefit generations to come.

The final phase of the high school’s Building on the Legacy campaign will include the construction of a new three-story fine arts building between the student learning center and the main building, centralizing the Fine Arts Department. The first floor will house the art studio, ceramics/pottery studio, photography and computer graphics studio, a general meeting room and Campus Ministry office. The second floor will house a STEAM room (STEM plus art) and the computing and robotics lab. A third-floor rooftop terrace will open from the music studio providing space for performances and gatherings. Each floor will include a front façade designed to house gallery spaces for students’ work to be displayed.