OT: Best High School Football Facility in WPA
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Pine Richland is awfully nice. Their pressbox, has about 50 seats on 3 levels. They have a buffet in the pressbox before games; and it is heated and air conditioned(also an elevator). The food at their refreshment stand is better than Heinz Field. The facility is the best in W. Pa until NA decides to outdo them
It’s funny but I remember when they were rare in the Mon Valley. A lot of the stadiums were built on hillsides or in a depression and had concrete stands that you entered from above or they were metal and had very short structure on the hillside. Elizabeth Forward, Donora, Monnesson, Belle Vernon just off the top of my head. Some were concrete because they housed the locker rooms underneath.
I've been to around 50 WPIAL stadiums and just feel it depends on what you're looking for. If you're talking about fancy press boxes there will be a handful in contention, but if you're talking about the setting or atmosphere you are in an entirely different category of stadiums. When it comes to simply athletics, the football facility would be weight room, locker room, training room, practice field, and stadium.
Half of Pine Richland's stadium is nice, but the other half with the dinky set of bleachers is pretty lame. North Allegheny's stadium is pretty bad. Unless they made updates over the past 2-3 years, the last time I was there the concession stand was no bigger than a shed and the bathrooms looked to be 30+ years old with water all over the floor from leaky toilets. The visitors side of the field also has the light posts in front of the bleachers.
Half of Pine Richland's stadium is nice, but the other half with the dinky set of bleachers is pretty lame. North Allegheny's stadium is pretty bad. Unless they made updates over the past 2-3 years, the last time I was there the concession stand was no bigger than a shed and the bathrooms looked to be 30+ years old with water all over the floor from leaky toilets. The visitors side of the field also has the light posts in front of the bleachers.
In my opinion, South Fayette has a very nice (and underrated) football stadium. However, IIRC the stands are a tad too far back for my liking.
I don't know much about local football stadiums other than that ours (Carlynton) has got to be near the bottom.
Used to live adjacent to North Hills' stadium and it always seemed quite impressive to me.
Used to live adjacent to North Hills' stadium and it always seemed quite impressive to me.
Woodland Hills Wolvearena good ole high school stadium.
Which Freedom? There is a Freedom HS close to Ambridge and another one out East.
They have stadiums that would put MAC schools to shame.
The thing is, those school districts are so large and have so much revenue coming in from property taxes, they can afford these types of stadiums. They have to spend the money on something. Allen has 2K students per grade. It would be like if you merged Mt Lebanon, USC, PT, BP, CV, and CM and opened South Hills School District. Im pretty sure they could easily afford a 30K seat football stadium.
There's also MANY communities arenas in those large suburban towns. Like here, we have community centers with maybe a gym or whatever. There, they have 10K seat arenas.
And theater seating film rooms. Pitt had a team meeting in one such place at for a bowl game not long ago
This is true. Look up Prosper High School in Texas, about 30 miles north of Dallas. I once was at their high school athletic complex and their indoor facility rivals some major D1 schools. No kidding.
Here you go... this is a high school keep in mind!
digengineers.com
Prosper ISD Indoor Practice Facility - DIG Engineers
This state-of-the-art high school indoor practice facility is 81,900-square feet and consists of a 26,400-square foot field house, 7,400-square foot weight / training room, locker rooms and showers, coaches offices, and a laundry area. The facility is also equipped with drop-down netting systems...
digengineers.com
In WPA my list of the ones I've been to (and some it's been 20 or 25 years:
- Pine Richland - Really nice press box, home side of the field and just general set up overall
- Wolverena - Just love the stands being on the hillside
- Davis Field (Kiski) - the old field before they moved, it was a dump but I loved the atmosphere of it being right in the middle of town
- Pine Richland - Really nice press box, home side of the field and just general set up overall
- Wolverena - Just love the stands being on the hillside
- Davis Field (Kiski) - the old field before they moved, it was a dump but I loved the atmosphere of it being right in the middle of town
To me, a great high school stadium doesn’t have a track. It might be a little irrational, but a place can have all the amenities in the world, but there’s something different about a place where the bleachers are closer to the sidelines without a track.
So, in that vein, I’ve always liked North Hills for its combination of amenities/support facilities and the lack of a track.
So, in that vein, I’ve always liked North Hills for its combination of amenities/support facilities and the lack of a track.
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A few of my favorites include:
North Hills - I think this place lives up to the hype. It's in a natural bowl which makes for a boost in crowd noise. The bleachers are right on top of the field. Downside is it's not easy to get from one side to another. Great place to watch a game.
Offutt Field - Another no track field with bleachers on top of the field. Great view of downtown and the concession stands and locker rooms are relatively new, just got new turf.
Ambridge - It's been awhile since I've been here, but another place where I like the setting and where you have the seats on top of the field.
Woodland Hills - The theme continues with no track around the field. Terrific venue to watch football, especially if you want to high vantage point.
Norwin - The only one in my top 5 with a track, but it's another big stadium that hosts big games for a reason.
I'm a fan of Belle Vernon as well aside from the atrocious turf they have.
I saw someone mentioned South Fayette. That falls in line with schools like Montour, Thomas Jefferson,, Hampton, and others where they have some impressive features (press boxes), but the stands are terribly far from the field. Feels like there is no connection between the seating area and the game.
When it comes to actual athletic facilities, Latrobe has a pretty cool setup at their school. The football team plays adjacent to downtown, but they have a ton of new facilities on campus including a smaller second stadium. It gives off a small college vibe.
As a former Crusader from the old (mid/late 90s) 3 Rivers Conference (a lot of small rural AA schools) Carlynton was by far the worst I played at. No joke The next worst one was way better than Carlyntons. The locker room was small (normal for the conference) but it literally had no stalls for the toilets. There were just 3 toilets in the middle of the room, privacy be damned. The field was horrible also. The stands looked horrible (never sat there) but on the plus side, is that there was no track so close to the field and a home and away side. I hate one sided stadiums.
I love North Hills. Reminds me of Steubenville’s Harding Stadium with no track and the way the bleachers surround the entire field.
I like the old stadiums in downtown's/neighborhoods to the new ones on campuses. Give me unique places like Wovearena, North Hills, Canon Mac (visitor side is too low but still), Monessen, the Pit, Greensburg Salem, Latrobe, etc over the cookie cutters on campus places like NA,PR, MT Leno, TJ, SF, USC anyday.
Back when I traveled for work, one of my areas was the Parkersburg WV/Marietta, OH. Some days when I was looking for a change of pace I would take WV Rt. 2 instead of US 77 & 70. On Rt. 2 there was this old town called St Mary's that had this old extremely unique stadium in the town that was so cool looking. I was half tempted to stay a Friday night just to catch a game to see it better. Every week I would tell myself "this week I'm staying Friday and going to the game, but by Friday I just wanted to get home. My last year before moving into the office, St Mary's WV built a new school with a whole campus along with a cookie cutter type stadium. I always thought what a damn shame it must be going from that unique stadium to a dime a dozen type place.
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Point Stadium in downtown Johnstown was a cool place to catch a high school football game in the past. It definintely had a big game atmosphere to it. Alas those days are gone.
Totally agree with this. I’m really not huge on the stadiums on the sprawling high school campuses. I also like stadiums that are in town parks, to go with the downtown/neighborhood ones. You don’t see as much of those here in the WPIAL, and if they are, it seems like it’s in the smaller towns where the stadium itself is lacking. There are a bunch of nicer ones like this out in the central part of the state - Altoona, State College (adjacent university aside, their high school stadium is a beautiful facility in the middle of town), and then Camp Hill, Middletown, and Mechanicsburg are all very nice facilities out there. Gettysburg is also cool - it’s behind the old high school and it has a track, but it’s surrounded on two sides by the battlefield.
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