VENERABLE ETHEREDGE STADIUM, the longtime home of the La Marque Cougars football team, will be silenced at least for the 2020 season. The Cougars will play the home portion of the upcoming campaign at Texas City’s Stingaree Stadium while TCISD determines the future of the stadium that is home to five state championships and 10 title game appearances.
“It’s not closing completely,” said La Marque football coach Shone Evans. “The playing surface in Texas City is better and will be safer for the players.”
Etheredge Stadium has had its share of issues in recent years. The Cougars were forced to play in Texas City for a 2017 game against Hitchcock and a game last season against Columbia after storms the week of the games resulted in field conditions that were unsuitable for use.
Rather than run the risk of having the scenario again play itself out, the TCISD board decided that moving the Cougars to Texas City was the best option.
“As of now, the school board voted this to be a temporary solution,” said Texas City head football coach/TCISD Athletic Director Leland Surovik.
The stadium, which has seen more than five decades of Cougars football, has long been in need of extensive renovations. Although the press box was revamped following Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the addition of a new scoreboard in 2015 were positives, Etheredge Stadium fell along the lines of Galveston’s Courville Stadium as a facility rich in history yet unlikely to get an extensive makeover. Declining attendance at La Marque home football games over the past several years did not help the cause for renovation for Etheredge. Meanwhile, Dickinson (Sam Vitanza Stadium) and League City (Challenger-Columbia) received new stadiums over the past decade while the likes of Friendswood, Santa Fe and Texas City made improvements to their football palaces.
Temporary or not, the decision to move the Cougars from Etheredge Stadium did not carry well with La Marque alums, many of which feel the decision is just another loss of identity for both the city and the school since Texas City ISD took over La Marque’s schools in 2016.
The move also sparked speculation of the decades-long myth of a potential merger of the two high schools despite nothing suggesting that it is even an option.
