Board votes to name athletic facilities for Buchanan, Wood

The Aledo ISD School Board voted unanimously at a special meeting on Monday, May 22, to rename its athletic complexes for coaches Tim Buchanan and Steve Wood.

The board’s action was meant, and succeeded, at being a surprise for the two coaches who found out the news barely an hour later at a retirement reception held in their honor at Bearcat Stadium.

Bearcat Stadium will be named Tim Buchanan Stadium, and the indoor facility and field houses will be named the Steve Wood Complex.

School board member Jennifer Loftin made the motion to rename the facilities for Wood.

“Coach Wood and Coach Buc have been a huge part of what it means to grow greatness in Aledo ISD and we are so thankful for them,” Loftin said. “I think that Coach Wood's commitment to students and his work as defensive coordinator and athletic director has regularly made a huge impact on how our students thrive. … I also know that my kids are better for for the way that he has loved them and coached them and encouraged them to be their best. So we know that the indoor [facility] and the weight room and the coaches’ offices is where the real work happens behind the scenes to make champions. And so I move that the indoor multipurpose facility, with its new addition, and the field house be named the Steve Wood Complex, effective after his last contract day with the service in Aledo ISD.”

The board unanimously approved the motion, as well as the next one.

Board member Hoyt Harris recounted Buchanan’s history at Aledo in making his motion to rename the stadium. He began by pointing out that Buchanan would be inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor this summer in Houston.

"That's obviously a well deserved honor for Coach Buchanan. I know it brings a great deal of pride to our community as well,” Harris said. “Tim Buchanan has certainly brought our football program a long way since he first arrived here in 1993.”

Harris recalled that Buchanan spent his first few weeks clearing rocks off the practice field, saying Buchanan literally built the program from the ground up.

“I often wonder during that time if he ever dreamed he would arrive to campus some 20 years later to see every television network and TV truck locally and nationally here to ask him the question of ‘coach, how's your team so good?’”

“I bet he also never dreamed that he would stay in Aledo for 30 years,” Harris continued. “He bounced around a little bit and there wasn't a lot going on here — you know, 30 years ago, to really entice someone to stay.”

Harris commented that Buchanan has stayed 30 years, 25 as head coach with five years carved out as athletic director. 

“In 2006 Bearcat stadium opened,” Harris said. “Since that stadium has opened, our varsity teams have compiled a record of 82 wins and six losses with an average margin of victory of 40 points, which we all know could obviously be 60 if you want it to be, but Coach Buchanan is not a bully. So it stayed at 40. In 2022, his final season as head coach, Coach Buchanan led the Bearcats to their 11th state championship and just has had amazing career. Trustees having literally built this program from the ground up to where it is today, I make a motion that effective after his last contract day of service with the Aledo ISD that Bearcat stadium be renamed Tim Buchanan stadium.”

The coaches found out about the naming honors when the short school board meeting was re-broadcast on the big scoreboard at the retirement reception.

More coverage of Buchanan and Wood’s retirement reception, along with coverage of Lynn McKinney’s retirement reception, will appear in next week’s issue.