LCM opens new training facility at the high school

The Little Cypress Mauriceville softball and baseball teams are getting ready for their district games and are preparing to work at making the post season playoffs. Assisting both the Lady Bears and the Bear ball players in their preparations is a new practice facility at Little Cypress Mauriceville High School.

Local businessman and longtime Little Cypress Mauriceville supporter Mike Poutra was recognized along with his wife Gwen for their leadership with the LCM school district. Both Mike and Gwen had facilities at the high school named in their honor.

A ribbon cutting ceremony officially opened the Mike Poutra LCM Battlin' Bear Training Facility the last week in February. The Poutra athletic facility is located in the former "Sweatbox Gym" behind the fieldhouse.

Little Cypress Mauriceville Athletic Director Eric Peevey opened the ceremony by giving a history of converting an old gym into a state of the art workout facility for all sports except basketball. "We've got to have something that can help our athletes have the same opportunity the other schools we play have. Today's world especially when we start playing schools out of the Houston area we were having to cancel practices, events, and time for our kids to get better while those other schools were not. At that point our booster club, the kids, and our community did a fantastic job coming together raising money to find a way to put the funds needed to where we could use this facility," Peevey explained.

Together the various groups and organizations raised $156,000 to renovate the old gym. Peevey emphasized not one dollar used for the renovation of the gym came from the Little Cypress Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District itself, or in other words no tax money was used to create the Mike Poutra LCM Battlin' Bear Training Facility.

Peevey indicated the name for the facility came from the dedicated service of Poutra to the school district. Poutra is a graduate of Little Cypress High School, was an athlete at Little Cypress, had two sons that were athletes at Little Cypress Mauriceville, and served as the school board president for the Little Cypress Mauriceville school district for over a decade. The very gym that has been converted into the training facility was constructed during Poutra's term on the school board.

Later Poutra served on the Battlin' Bears Booster Club and was voted to be the president by a vote of the boosters. Poutra used his personal printing business to provide tee shirts, hats, and other special items to the different LCM sports and extracurricular activities at cost or at a loss to his company to help promote activities for the school district.

Poutra emotionally accepted the official opening and naming of the training facility in his honor. "This is a very exciting thing for me. I'm very appreciative. I'm proud, I've always been proud of this school district. I couldn't have done it without Gwen and of course both my sons and Blake what he did on his end. I just hope LCM will keep going forward," Poutra expressed. His son Blake Poutra made a very generous donation to help cover some of the cost of the renovation to the gym.

The Mike Poutra LCM Battlin' Bear Training Facility has four batting cages that can be pulled out and then pushed back into the walls of the building. There is a pitching mound constructed by the shop class at LCM High School to assist the pitchers in their practices. The floor is carpeted like artificial turf with painted lines every five yards to simulate a football field and will be used by Coach Peevey and the football team for workouts when the weather is too nasty to hold practices at Battlin' Bear Stadium.

Prior to the ribbon cutting at the Poutra Training Facility there was recognition of Gwen Poutra at a special room used for counseling students with their parents. The room nicknamed the "Fish Bowl" was dedicated to Gwen and a plaque was presented designating her contributions to the school.