Construction is underway on a new baseball and softball complex for Lafayette High School, giving the school’s diamond programs a permanent home after years of campus redevelopment.

The project is rising at 600 Foreman Drive on the former S.J. Montgomery Elementary School property, directly behind Lafayette High’s rebuilt campus.

Plans call for separate baseball and softball fields arranged around a shared central building that will serve both programs.

That building is expected to include concessions, public restrooms, storage space and an elevated press box with views of both diamonds.

The broader scope includes new dugouts, bullpens, batting cages, fencing, backstop and outfield netting, irrigation, drainage improvements, walkways and parking.

Existing scoreboards are also expected to be reinstalled as part of the work.

Public bid documents for the complex describe sprigged fields, a new irrigation system, a limestone parking lot and utility connections throughout the site.

The package also includes a pre-engineered metal storage building and a conditioned concession area designed to support regular school games and tournaments.

Recent views of the property show substantial groundwork already completed, along with concrete foundations, block structures and early work on the shared facilities.

The progress marks a major shift for a site that previously served elementary students.

S.J. Montgomery Elementary closed during Lafayette Parish School System’s districtwide consolidation and campus optimization process.

The School Board later approved demolition, site preparation and fencing work so the property could be repurposed for Lafayette High athletics.

The location change also brought the project closer to the high school than an earlier proposal for fields near Neyland Park.

A February 2025 School Board meeting document reallocated $800,000 from the earlier Neyland Park plan toward S.J. Montgomery demolition and baseball-softball site preparation.

The same document listed more than $2 million for abatement, demolition, preparation and fencing tied to the former elementary campus.

A later public bid listing described a construction package estimated at approximately $2.65 million for the fields, support building and related site work.

The complex fills one of the last major gaps created by the multiyear rebuilding of Lafayette High School.

The former baseball and softball fields were removed to make room for parking connected to the new campus, forcing the programs to play away from their traditional home grounds.

For student-athletes and families, the new complex represents more than upgraded facilities.

It restores a true home-field setting on the school’s campus and should make practices, games and school-day logistics more manageable.

Keeping both diamonds together also gives the baseball and softball programs access to shared amenities while preserving facilities designed around each sport.

The work follows the opening of Lafayette High’s new academic campus and improvements to its football facilities.

The rebuilt school includes modern classrooms, career and technical spaces, arts facilities, expanded athletics areas and a redesigned traffic flow.

The new complex is therefore less a stand-alone project than the final athletic phase of a broader reinvestment in the school property.

Readers can see the original construction report and project photographs in the source coverage.

The baseball and softball project is currently expected to be completed by June 2027, although construction schedules can change because of weather, materials and other site conditions.

If that timeline holds, the complex would be ready ahead of the following school year and could position both programs to begin a new chapter on campus.

For Lafayette High, the project is the finishing piece of a long transformation.

For its baseball and softball teams, it is the long-awaited return of a place to call home.