CELINA, Texas (CBSNewsTexas.com) - The need for more athletic fields and park space has never been greater in northern Collin County.

It forces some kids to practice during the heat of the day and late at night.

But the City of Celina has just approved plans for huge new park to address that issue and offer its residents a much needed gathering place.

The Dallas Tigers are some of the best 7-and under baseball players around.

Their head coach would prefer not to schedule practices in hundred plus degree heat, but he says just getting a field reserved in Celina these days is a major challenge.

"Fortunately were able to get this field from 5 to 7 so we gotta rush hour here after work," said Monk Kreder, the Dallas Tigers Head Coach."Maybe a little hot but we're conscious with the water and stuff and the kids are having a blast."

The demand for athletic fields is one of the reasons Celina will soon build a $50 million park for its growing population of 45,000.

"This park is important to bring all of our residents together in one location," said Ryan Tubbs, Celina's Mayor. "Our tagline here is 'Life Connected.'"

Celina's mayor detailed some of Wilson Creek Park's features that include not only much needed baseball and soccer fields, but also fields for lacrosse and cricket, as well as courts for tennis and pickleball, a disc golf course, a dog park along with trails and an amphitheatre.

"Parks are important to bring people together to be healthy to get out and exercise, as well as we're busting at the seams in our current park," Tubbs said.

Celina leaders say the 100-acre park will not only be one of the biggest in the area, it will have something for just about everyone.

For now, youth sports teams will have to stay hydrated to practice in the heat or stay up late just to get access to a field.

For more information about the Wilson Creek Master Plan, click here.

J.D. Miles

J.D. Miles is an award-winning reporter who has been covering North Texas for CBS 11 since 1996.

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Marc Rylander moved to Celina with the intent of settling down in a community that was like one he had grown up in. Now, he's the chairman of the Celina Education Foundation, leading an organization that supports Celina ISD students and teachers. In his new role, his first goal is to raise $1 million for an endowment "that will forever undergird and support the students and teachers of Celina ISD."

What brought you to Celina?

I have always lived in and loved growing, thriving places. I was raised in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas in the 1980s and 1990s when it was a hotbed of growth “way out north near 635.” My wife and I lived in Frisco in the early 2000s when it was booming. When we started having kids, we made the decision to move to a place where we could settle down and raise them in a community like the ones where we grew up, where lives centered around faith, family and the hometown team. So, nearly 15 years ago, we moved north and have loved calling Celina "home" and raising our kids here.

What made you want to join the Celina Education Foundation?

My parents were both educators, and my wife is a teacher in Celina ISD. My life was richly impacted by teachers in the public schools I attended in Richardson ISD, and my four kids are having the same experience in Celina ISD. Joining the Celina Education Foundation gave me a chance to share my time, talents and resources with the district that has impacted my family in a transformative way and to give back, in some small act of service, to our hometown school district which deserves our support.

How would you describe your role as foundation president to the community?

Serving as Celina Education Foundation President allows me to stand on the shoulders of community leaders before me who sacrificed to build this organization into a catalyst of service and support for teachers and students in Celina ISD. The position also gives me a chance to pioneer a path of my own, which I am using to build and launch an endowment to perpetually carry out the work of the foundation for generations to come, while still making a difference for our educators and students today.

What are your hopes for the foundation in the near future?

My immediate goal for the Celina Education Foundation is to initially raise $1 million for an endowment that will forever undergird and support the students and teachers of Celina ISD. At the same time, I want to continue to raise the visibility and viability of the foundation and make a mark in the lives of our students and teachers here today. In the spring, we gave out nearly $200,000 in scholarships to Celina students to aid their undergraduate studies. Over the summer, we sorted through applications and awarded nearly $15,000 to teachers through our Grants for Great Ideas program. We recently gave out cash gifts to our brand-new teachers who chose Celina as the district in which they would begin their career and to all the teachers who helped open Martin Elementary School this year. We also funded the uniforms for all our Bobcats participating in Special Olympics, Paralympics, and other UIL competitions. I want to grow our ability to continue these efforts and to do even greater things for our worthy teachers and students in Celina ISD.

What are your hopes for the foundation in the long-term future?

My long-term dream for the Celina Education Foundation would be to have the necessary resources to fund every program and initiative of Celina ISD that the organization wished to support. With the increasing costs related to higher education, I want us to give bigger scholarships to our graduating seniors to assist their families. With the ongoing lethargy of our state legislature when it comes to supporting Texas educators, I want us to have limitless resources to fund teacher incentives and needs so that the best of the best educators will continue wanting to serve here over any district in the state. And as we grow and expand as a school district, I want us to fund the programs that guard and promote the vision and values that this community has shared across our history so that, no matter how large we get, the heart and soul of Celina ISD is forever preserved.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love traveling with my family and our friends. Last winter, we all went skiing in Utah (and got to drive, thanks to the Southwest Airlines shutdown). This past summer, my boys and I completed a project spanning over a decade, and we have now been to a game together in every stadium in Major League Baseball. For New Year’s, we will go with a group of friends to experience the Holy Land. Most weekends in the summer, we escape to East Texas to play on the water. But it is always good and right to come home to Celina!

Where in Celina is your favorite place to spend time, and why?

My favorite place to spend time in Celina is on our historic downtown square or at one of our stadiums. As the son of a coach, I grew up around high school stadiums and love everything about Texas high school athletics. I’m also a fifth-generation North Texan, and our square is a gathering place that magically connects us to every generation of Celina residents since its development in 1911. The one place I most often hide out is in the backroom of the Celina Heritage Museum studying old photographs, reading historic articles or visiting with one of our Celina legacy families out of a desire to know and love this place more deeply.

In your opinion, what makes Celina, Celina?

Our values. Nothing more, nothing less. Celina has been built and has stood on deeply cherished and strongly held values. Faith is at the core of every one of them, and it has been the guiding light from our first day to this day. We can grow from where we are today to where the experts predict we will be and never lose our heart and soul if we commit to preserving and living the values that shaped our heritage. It’s ludicrous to say we cannot. However, if we ever compromise that heart of our community for one moment, we will forever forfeit that which makes Celina, Celina.

If you had to pick a theme song for yourself, what would it be?

"Living On A Prayer."

Tell us something about yourself that people would never guess to be true.

I have amassed one of the largest collections of Dallas history memorabilia anywhere. My family arrived there before 1900, and my grandparents instilled in me a love for the city and her rich history. I started collecting cool Dallas items as a kid, and I’ve never stopped.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I would hope to be remembered as a man who relentlessly loved God and passionately loved people.

The development roughly two miles east of the future Dallas North Tollway will tie into Celina's downtown square.

CELINA, Texas — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal

With the expansion of the Dallas North Tollway, a flourishing historic downtown, and relative affordability compared to nearby northern Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, Celina has a lot going for it, says Ryan Griffin, principal at Rockhill Capital & Investments.

Against that backdrop, Rockhill has teamed up with Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers to launch The Ranch at Uptown Celina, a 450-home residential community located on 150 acres between FM 455 and future Celina Parkway.

The development roughly two miles east of the future Dallas North Tollway will tie into Celina's downtown square by a golf-cart-friendly hike-and-bike trail. It’s also slated to have a pool, water feature, parks and green space.

Construction is underway on the project, with grading expected to commence in early 2023.

The Ranch at Uptown Celina is part of the broader four-community Uptown Celina district, a 675-acre project planned for about 2,500 single-family homes.

In the interview that follows, Griffin tells us more about the project, the housing market and why he’s bullish on Celina.

Why is it a good time right now to launch the Ranch at Uptown Celina?

Three reasons. One is that the Dallas North Tollway with the service lanes and the overpass over Highway 380 has really opened up housing in Celina to employment in Frisco and North Dallas.

The second reason is it's more affordable than obviously Frisco and Prosper. If you've been tracking this market, you know what Frisco is doing, and Prosper is right there with it (in rising home prices). In order to afford a home, Celina is a really good area.

And thirdly, Celina has made a huge investment in their downtown area. Their EDC focuses on their downtown area in a very similar way to how McKinney did their downtown area over the last 20 years through both private-public partnerships and to some extent organic growth. You can tell they really made a huge investment there.

This property (The Ranch at Uptown Celina) is all accessible to the downtown area via hike and bike trails. Celina is a golf-cart community and that's something that the younger generations today find attractive. They really don't want to get into a vehicle. They want to be able just to hop on a cart and drive into downtown, eat dinner, have a beer and go home.

How do you see Celina developing over the next few years?

I think Celina is poised to be another Frisco. They certainly have done a great job of of masterplanning their city and deciding what goes where, just like Frisco did. We're bullish on Celina. We like that area. It's great community.

What is your timetable with The Ranch at Uptown Celina?

Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers' plans are really close to getting approved. They'll be coming out of the ground pretty quick. I would say they're starting in the next 60 to 90 days, and they're hoping to have lots on the ground in late 2024 or early 2025. It will certainly be ready to have houses ready for the spring season 2025.

This is the first phase. What will be he total home count at full buildout?

It’s a 2,500-lot community, and that’s not including multifamily and some townhome, and we might have some single-family rental go in.

I know this is difficult to predict, but are you anticipating changes in the mortgage-rate environment or the demand environment by the time these homes are available?

We have to take that day to day. Nobody has a crystal ball. I personally am in the camp that interest rates might tick up a little bit more then maybe stabilize over the next quarter or so.

I know that builders had a really good January and I am very optimistic about the spring. I think honestly that buyers are coming to grips with the fact that interest rates are 7%, not three. Keep in mind they can maybe get down to 5.5% if they buy rates down. Historically speaking, that's a cheap rate. We got a little spoiled when it was 2.75%. A lot of these buyers, if mortgage rates turn around and go back down, they always can refinance. So I think they're just getting comfortable with that. I think the last six months, the last year, it was just a such a shock to the system that everybody kind of froze.

Job growth is a huge driver, and Dallas-Fort Worth just doesn't show any sign of slowing down. Don't get me wrong, I'm always cautious, but I do think that we've got a bright future over the next 24 months, if not longer.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

Last year, Anna defeated Celina for the first time in 50 years; then they topped the Bobcats again in the playoffs. Friday night, Celina has their chance at revenge.

Credit: WFAA

CELINA, Texas — One year ago Saturday, the Anna Coyotes sent reverberations across the high school football world. For the first time since 1972, the Coyotes defeated the Celina Bobcats. The 28-25 final score was reported far and wide - even Sports Illustrated featured the landmark win. Fifty years is a long time, and that win drew its fair share of attention.

A little over two months later, Anna knocked off Celina again. The 27-24 playoff victory advanced the Coyotes to the 4A-Division I Region II final, where they would see their dream season come to an end at 13-1, as they lost to eventual state champion China Spring, 31-14.

But the two wins over Celina were benchmark victories for Seth Parr's program that had been steadily improving in recent years.

Now, Anna has to tackle an even bigger challenge -- backing those wins up all over again, a year later, on the road.

Fifth-ranked Celina welcomes the No. 2 Coyotes into Bobcat Stadium on Friday night at 7:30, and you can watch the game live on WFAA+, as Week 4 of "Friday Night Football" hits the air.

You can watch the game live on our streaming platform WFAA+. WFAA+ is available on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. You can also watch the game right here on WFAA.com, or on our WFAA YouTube channel.

Celina is looking to build off an impressive 3-0 start that has seen them average better than 51 points per game. The Bobcats are led by a dynamic tandem at running back.

Sophomore Logan Gutierrez has been long anticipated in the Celina community, and he's arrived here as a sophomore in a dramatic way, already rushing for over 500 yards and 9 touchdowns in his first three games of this season. Against Bishop Lynch, he tallied the outrageous stat line of: 26 carries, 254 rushing yards, and 5 touchdowns. He also caught one pass for 39 more yards, and a sixth total touchdown.

And his backfield-mate Harrison Williams, a junior, had a similarly outstanding game, carrying 24 times for 326 rushing yards and three touchdowns of his own, in the Bobcats 77-41 win over the Friars. Anna's defense will have to find a way to slow down this one-two punch the Bobcats have at tailback.

Meanwhile, Anna features a young quarterback doing a marvelous job at replacing a star. Evan Bullock led Anna to that dream season in 2023, and is now at Louisiana Tech playing Division I football.

Williams, just a sophomore himself, has stepped in and lit the 4A ranks on fire in his first two games. Williams has 451 passing yards and 7 touchdowns, plus another 159 rushing yards and a TD. And he's done that without his top target, Jacob Emmers, healthy yet. Ronald Bell, Jr. and Sean Steens have both played terrific football these first two weeks, to step up in Emmers absence.

Defensively, Celina has talent all over the field. The Biagini brothers - older brother Cade, a senior; younger brother Luke, a sophomore - bookend their three-man linebacking corps. Cooper Farrow mans the middle of the field, and will look to make life difficult for the Coyotes offense. Ben Thomas is a presence at defensive end, and Jameson Driver roams the middle of the field for Celina at strong safety.

The Coyotes defense is as veteran as it gets -- 10 of their 11 starters are seniors. Grayson Stewart and CJ Miller work in tandem at linebacker, to fill the gaps. And senior Nathan Nickerson is a phenomenally talented defensive lineman who Parr is very excited about.

With a strategic location and exponential population growth, developers call it the new Frisco

Just like Frisco and Plano before, Celina is next in line to become one of North Texas’ boomtowns. As previously reported by Local Profile, Celina’s exponential population growth over the past couple of years is changing its landscape, and in turn, the new residents are attracting new businesses.

Part of Celina’s advantage is its strategic location — only a 15-minute drive away from Frisco. The Collin County town is near major commercial centers connected thanks to Preston Road running through the city. This perk will only be favored by the new Dallas North Tollway expansion and last year big brands like Cotsco tried to get ahead of the curve by securing a spot in the up-and-coming town.

It’s not just retail companies that are eying Celina, real estate firms have big plans for the city. In April 2022, Centurion American Development Group broke ground to begin the construction of a 3,200-acre community with 7,000 single-family homes and another 4,100 multifamily units. Now Rockhill Capital & Investments teamed up with Toll Brothers, the Pennsylvania-based building company behind several developments across Collin County, to bring The Ranch a new residential community to uptown Celina.

According to the Dallas Business Journal, The Ranch, located two miles east of the future Dallas North Tollway, will feature 450 single-family units that are expected to be available in 2024.

“Uptown Celina will be an extension of downtown, offering ‘backyard’ access via its trails,” said in an official statement Ryan Griffin, principal at Rockhill Capital & Investments. “We are excited to advance this project alongside talented builder partners, Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers, starting with The Ranch at uptown Celina.”

When asked about why Celina, Griffin told WFAA that he believes it’s poised to become another Frisco. In addition to masterplanning the city, the government in Celina is willing to invest in its community. “Their EDC focuses on their downtown area in a very similar way to how McKinney did their downtown area over the last 20 years through both private-public partnerships and to some extent organic growth,” added Griffin.

According to Griffin, Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers' plans are close to being approved, and they hope to start working on the first phase in the next 60 to 90 days. At full buildout, the project will hold a 2,500-lot community.