BEALLSVILLE — Since the Switzerland of Ohio Board of Education approved giving $800,000 to Beallsville High School for the construction of a football fieldhouse as well as baseball and softball fields, Athletics Director Delmas Moore and head football coach Larry Deem have had plenty of anxious moments.

Actually, to hear both tell it, there probably hasn’t been a day where they’ve not been involved with some kind of work or planning of the facilities. In the spring, Moore’s nervousness slowed when the Blue Devils unveiled their new diamonds at the high school.

Moore and Deem can actually relax a bit now because the project is in its final stages. By the time the Blue Devils return from a four-game road trip, which began Friday at Frontier, to play Bridgeport on Sept. 28, the Blue Devils’ facility will be officially completed. There will be a dedication that evening.

“We’re deliriously happy,” Moore said. “In about four months (of work), we went from having basically nothing to now a state-of-the-art fieldhouse. We’re just very pleased.”

Though the project isn’t officially complete, the school did receive clearance to utilize some of the building during their season opener against Zanesville Rosecrans on Aug. 24.

When Moore says the Blue Devils had “basically nothing,” he wasn’t kidding. Prior to the construction of the new facility, Beallsville dressed in a modular building that boasted one toilet and nary a shower facility.

“It was a mess,” Moore said. “But, it was all that we had because (since the building was sold), we do not have access to the (former Beallsville H.S.) building.”

To say the new facility, which sits on the east end of Blue Devil Stadium near the concession stand, that measures 120 by 60 and features basically ever ammenity needed is a massive upgrade certainly wouldn’t be doing it justice.

“(The fieldhouse) is going to be outstanding,” Deem said. “Everything will be right here and not just football will benefit from this. All of our athletes — both male and female — will have access to this.”

Along with the Blue Devils’ locker room, the building has a visitor’s locker room, a separate wrestling room in which the mats will be able to stay down at all times, a training room, equipment room, weight room, officials dressing room and visitor’s dressing room. It also features a locker room for the Blue Devils’ cheerleaders.

“We went from probably the worst facilities in (Ohio) Division VII, football wise, to one of the best,” Deem said, pointing out the stadium has a new scoreboard with a video board. “I tell the kids a lot of good people did a lot of good things to get where we are right now.”

Deem also indicated he can tell that his players are chomping at the bit to have full access to the facility.

“You can see the glimmer in the kids’ eyes,” Deem said. “You can just see it in their attitudes.”

The majority of the project was done by local contractors. Steve Johnson, who is a 1981 Beallsville High graduate.

“Without Steve Johnson, this wouldn’t have come together as quickly and efficiently as it has,” Deem said.

Moore aggreed.

“Steve Johnson has been our go-to-guy in this project,” Moore explained. “He’s donated so many hours to this.”

Johnson, who has two grandchildren in the school system, oversaw the general contracting portion of the project.

“Overall, the project has gone well,” Johnson said. “There have been some hurdles, but we’ve done a lot with what we’ve had to work with. We’re a little bit late in getting it finished because we got delayed in the winter.”

Johnson pointed out the electrical, heating, plumbing, painting and dry wall work were subcontracted out to other groups.

Moore pointed out that on top of the school district’s pledge of money, the community has also backed the project.

“We had a family give us $7,000 and another give us $5,000 and honestly without those types of donations, we’d be struggling to try to finish this,” Moore said.

All told, more than $30,000 in donations have been received. Included in that was 33 different people offering $500 to pay for the state-of-the-art lockers in the Blue Devils’ dressing room, officials room and coaches’ office.

“It’s just remarkable for a small community,” Moore said. ”

The youth wrestling program has pledged additional money so that all of the walls of the room are padded, too.

“The wrestling room will be absolutely phenomenal and our youth program will have total access to it,” Moore said.

“I believe we had 24 youth wrestlers in the program last year. Whatever our high school athletes have access to, our youth sports do, too.”