JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
Athletic Facilities for All Seasons
The athletics facilities at the new Watauga High School campus include six tennis courts, locker rooms at the stadium for the football and soccer teams, and three weight rooms.
The 22 sports teams and physical education classes at Watauga High School will have access to top-notch fields, gymnasiums and other facilities on a campus for all seasons.
Included in the new campus’s athletic facilities are a new football stadium, track, baseball and softball fields, a soccer and lacrosse field, tennis courts, gymnasiums and more.
The football stadium will feature increased seating, with about 3,500 seats on the home side and 1,500 on the visitors’ side.
“I think we definitely have plenty of seating here for anything that we might have,” including playoff games, said WHS Athletic Director Tom Wright.
Surrounding the football field will be an eight-lane rubber track. The stadium also features home and visiting team locker room facilities. A separate field will be dedicated to soccer and lacrosse.
Both fields will be surfaced with turf instead of grass—one of the best improvements in facilities at the new school, Wright said. Field turf will withstand the High Country’s many elements and allow for practice and class uses while maintaining conditions for games, he said.
The campus has baseball and softball fields and plans for an indoor training facility in the future.
The new WHS campus also includes a baseball field and a softball field. An indoor practice facility is planned for the future, which would especially benefit spring sports teams whose seasons sometimes begin while snow is still on the ground in Boone.
Other outdoor facilities include eight Pioneer blue tennis courts and a connector trail that links to Boone’s Greenway Trail system.
Inside the WHS building are two gymnasiums with maple wood floors—a main gym with 1,446 seats and an auxiliary gym with a seating capacity of 192. Having two gyms will provide increased access for the schools’ basketball, volleyball and wrestling teams, said Don Critcher, project coordinator for Watauga Country Schools.
“It’s hard to have three teams practicing at one gym,” Critcher said.
Other indoor facilities include a wrestling room, three weight rooms, health classrooms, a dance studio and locker rooms. The weight rooms will utilize equipment from the old high school. The new locker rooms are more spacious than the old school’s locker rooms and provide curtains for increased privacy.
Although WHS athletic teams and students will always take priority, the high school’s facilities are available for use by the community through arrangements with the Athletic Department.
“The entire facility was set up to be used by and with the community,” Critcher said.
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