High School Athletic Facilities Near Completion

Fayetteville School District board members take a look around the new indoor practice facility at Fayetteville High School Monday afternoon. Board members were given a tour to see the progress of all the school’s facilities that are being built or renovated, including the Fahring Center, the indoor practice facility, the new tennis complex and the new track.
Fayetteville School District board members take a look around the new indoor practice facility at Fayetteville High School Monday afternoon. Board members were given a tour to see the progress of all the school’s facilities that are being built or renovated, including the Fahring Center, the indoor practice facility, the new tennis complex and the new track.

— Brick by brick, ton after ton of steel, yards and yards of concrete, the transformation of Fayetteville High School is taking shape.

By the Numbers

High School Renovation

The physical education and athletic projects and costs associated with the Fayetteville High School transformation are:

-Alan Fahring Center — $1.6 million.

-Bulldog Activity and Recreation Complex — $2.8 million.

-Tennis facility — $1.2 million.

-Softball second field — $225,000

-District track facility — $1.4 million.

Source: Fayetteville School Districts

School Board members visited the latest completions in the overall project Monday, touring the Bulldog Athletic and Recreation Complex behind home bleachers at Harmon Stadium.

The 47,100-square-foot building features a practice field that will be ready by the end of January. The soccer, football, track and baseball teams will use the field, said Barry Gebhart, athletic director.

The band, cheer and dance teams and physical education students also will use the complex.

The building includes girls and boys dressing rooms for soccer, home and visiting locker rooms for ninth- grade football as well as offices and storage areas.

The district is spending about $7.2 million on the new facilities and renovations. The project costs are in addition to the $95 million for the main part of the high school campus. The athletic facilities are being paid for with one-time pullback money, which is a payment from the state for property taxes, and refinancing second lien bonds, said Superintendent Vicki Thomas.

Gebhart said the only sports not part of the new facilities are the bowling, golf, swim and dive teams. Those sports use off-campus facilities, he said.

“This shows the commitment to continue to take care of the whole student,” said Tim Hudson as he walked through the new tennis complex adjacent to the softball complex next to Asbell Elementary School.

The old tennis courts were removed to make room for the new sports arena and parking lot.

Wes Burgess, an architect with Crafton Tull and Associates, explained renovations at the Alan Fahring Center, which has been converted to an indoor baseball facility. The building once was the swimming pool for the old Fayetteville Boys and Girls Club. It has been retrofitted with coaches offices, dressing rooms for cross country, baseball and ninth-grade football, as well as dressing rooms for visiting football teams.

The group also visited the track and field complex at the corner of Sang Avenue and Old Farmington Road. The first event is scheduled there in April, Gebhart said. The track consists of nine running lanes.

Thomas praised the design and construction teams, as well as the district maintenance department for the work put into creating the new athletic spaces.

“These are great, great places for kids,” she said.

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