SPRINGDALE — Springdale Har-Ber might not have its own football stadium yet, but the Wildcats do have a new indoor multipurpose athletic facility to match their 7A/6A-West Conference competition.
The structure is part of a $1.5 million project to build the indoor facility and a track on the Har-Ber campus. The indoor facility opened July 27, around six months after ground was broken on the building.
“With an indoor, we now have what everyone from Bentonville to Pea Ridge has,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “The bottom line is we’re in a very competitive market here in Northwest Arkansas for the relocation of families. The four big districts and your 4A and 5A schools are all building indoors and turfing their field.
“It’s not like we’re trying to be on the cutting edge. We’re trying to stay with everyone else. You better be offering the best academic and athletic facilities and programs.”
The new facility houses a 40x60-yard football field that includes yard markers on the practice surface. It connects to the Wildcats’ preexisting field house, which houses meeting and training rooms, a locker room and weight room.
“The players are so excited to have this,” Wood said. “They’re smiling ear to ear. It even branches down. I’ve got a fifth-grader and a kindergartner and that’s almost like going to Disney World for them. They’re thinking about getting to use it when they get older.
“It just reaffirms how important it was to get when you look at the faces of the kids that are in it now and the kids that will be in it.”
The Wildcats had a week off before starting fall practice Monday, but numerous team members stopped by to check out the new structure.
“We were up here the other day working out and then started throwing the ball around out there,” senior tight end Nick Byrne said. “It’s real nice. It’ll be good to have when it’s raining so we can still get our practice in. It’s definitely taking us a step up. The next step will be getting that fi eld out there, but this is nice.
“We take pride in being the first class to use it.”
The building can be used for other athletic teams, including boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, wrestling and boys and girls track. It can also house band practices, PE classes and other community events.
“Really what this is a multipurpose building,” Wood said. “I don’t think you can go anywhere else on a district campus and point out a building that will be used more than a multipurpose facility. It’s not just specific to one group. It is a vast array of groups that will use it.”