Connelly School of the Holy Child's new stadium was honored by the Metro Washington and Virginia Chapters of the Associated Builders and Contractors for excellence in design and construction in a ceremony at the McLean Hilton on September 15.
The Neil T. Coakley Stadium includes a state-of-the-art video scoreboard, and artificial turf, which accommodates all of the school's outdoor sports including field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and softball. The stadium has Fenway Park-style perimeter walls, an elevated lawn viewing area, and built-in masonry bleachers that match the surrounding campus buildings. Holy Child is the only Catholic private girls’ school in the metropolitan area to have an artificial turf stadium.
Mary McCann, member of the board of trustees at Holy Child and chair of the stadium project, credits Tom Flanagan, architect, and Jason Azar, civil engineer, for the striking appearance of the stadium. "It was important to us that the stadium design integrate fully not only with our own campus, but with our immediate neighbors, including a horse farm and private estates. The design solution fits beautifully in this setting," says McCann.Since the stadium opened last year, Holy Child won league titles in lacrosse and softball, the first time in its history that the school double-bannered in a single season.
Connelly School of the Holy Child is a Catholic, independent, college preparatory school for young women, grades 6 through 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.
