Whitefish opened a new high school in 2015, broke ground on a new elementary school last summer and now, if boosters can fundraise $6 million, will be showing off a sparkling new outdoor athletic facility by 2021.
The Whitefish School Board on Jan. 8 gave the go-ahead to the Whitefish High School Booster Club to pursue funds for an outdoor sports complex that would include a 4,000-seat stadium with a 10-lane rubberized track, turf football and soccer field, new wrestling facility, new locker rooms and more, all on a piece of property already owned by the district and located directly east of the high school building.
Aric Harris, a Whitefish alumnus and the school’s activities director, says the improvements have been a long time coming.
“This would be the final piece to wrapping up our facility needs at the high school,” he said. “We see the potential to build something special for our kids, our community, the Western A (conference) as well as Class A.”
Whitefish has been playing football and, occasionally, soccer at Memorial Field, just north of the high school, and pays a fee to the Glacier Twins American Legion baseball team for use of the facility. Memorial Field has to be reconfigured for football and soccer, with the baseball outfield fences moved four times a year, and locker rooms are located a block away. A presentation to the school board on Jan. 8 also noted that Memorial Field’s bleachers were beginning to fail and that the complex did not offer sufficient seating for those with accessibility needs.
“It’s been a fun place to play and coach; I was an athlete on that field at one point,” Harris said of Memorial Field. “But we are at a time now where the time is right for us to move and create a facility that would fit all of our needs.”
The proposed new facility would be located at the site of the current WHS track, which presently can seat only 40 fans on one set of bleachers and offers no bathrooms. That becomes a particular problem during Whitefish’s annual A.R.M. track meet, which brings in teams from around western Montana and forces the high school to rent a semi-truck full of portable toilets. Proponents of the new facility imagine not just more comfortable accommodations for teams during the regular season, but envision Whitefish hosting the Class A state track meet in May, an event that would draw competitors and fans from throughout the state.
“We have the restaurants, we have the hotels,” Harris said of hosting state track, adding that the economic boost of bringing a large-scale event during the so-called shoulder season could benefit the entire community.
Perhaps the most significant piece of the new facility, however, is that boosters plan to finance the endeavor without any public funds. The nonprofit Whitefish Booster Club raises money every year to help offset athletic department expenses, but their largest annual event brings in a modest $50,000 or so. Now, the booster club is looking for $6 million, and Harris said he and club president Joe Akey have already approached some large donors to get the ambitious campaign started.
“This is a big step, and we’ve talked as a booster club over the last few years about how we can make this a reality,” Harris said. “We’ve had some talks with potential donors, and they seem interested in the project and see the benefit to the program and our community.”
Preparations for the facility are still in their infancy, and next steps will include hiring development professionals to map out exactly what the new facility will include and how everything will be configured. Preliminary plans include a new fieldhouse for the wrestling team, which currently trains in a converted maintenance garage, and longer-range plans could include the construction of tennis courts to allow for on-campus competitions.
“Our goal is to get all of our sports on our own campus so our kids aren’t driving all over town,” Harris said. “The facility piece will be absolutely huge.”
Whitefish officials are currently targeting the start of the 2021 track season to open the new facility, although that is dependent on a number of factors, not the least of which is raising $6 million in a relatively short period of time. Harris, however, believes the plan is taking shape at the right time and in the right town.
“We are very fortunate to live in a community where we have a lot of very generous residents,” he said. “Philanthropy is what they do.”