JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are taking their training camp practices on the road.
With construction on Jacksonville’s new practice facility already underway, the Jaguars are moving training camp practices off-site to the Episcopal School’s Knight Sports Complex.
“Not that our kids can be even bigger fans but now that the Jags are going to be at Episcopal our Episcopal student body is going to be excited to go to games and say, ‘oh my God, I saw him on my field,’” said Eagles athletic director Andy Kidd.
Episcopal has been building a relationship with the Jaguars since Gus Bradley was the head coach of the team. During the offseason, many Jaguars players have held private workouts on the Eagles football field.
Episcopal football coach Marcus Wells says having Jaguars players utilize their facilities is a huge asset
“So having our guys, you know, follow these guys on social media and see what they do on the field on Sundays, being able to rub shoulders with them a little bit it inspires our guys to want to work harder, be better and possibly get to that point somewhere in their lives,” he said.
The Jaguars have been aware of the need to move this year’s training camp off-site for months. This agreement has been in the works for a while. As part of the agreement, the Jaguars will re-sod both of the fields at the Knight Sports Complex and will install goalposts on both fields as well as other site improvements. Practices are not expected to be open to fans there.
The Jaguars’ new practice facility is expected to be completed and ready in time for 2023 training camp practice.
This isn’t the first time that construction has forced the Jaguars to move to a local high school football field. In 1995, the Jaguars had minicamp practice on the football field at Bishop Kenny. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium as it was called at the time, was under construction so the Jaguars moved the practice so that they would be able to host fans. Mark Brunell and Tom Coughlin both were on the field as fans watched their workouts on the Crusaders field.