Athletic facility upgrades at DHS, HHS nearing completion

The first phase of construction at Hahnville and Destrehan high schools’ athletic facilities is complete, while the second phase is set to be wrapped up as early as late September, according to John Rome, executive director of physical plant services for the St. Charles Parish school district.

The first phase entailed renovations to the existing football fieldhouse buildings, while the second phase centers around the construction of additional buildings at each school, respectively. New turf was also installed at each school’s football field during the summer.

Rome estimated the work would be done between late September and early October.

At Hahnville, the building of a new weight training facility and exercise building is underway. It will be a multi-purpose facility utilized by all sports and extracurricular activity participants.

One feature of the new building will be batting cages fixed upon a track system that can be raised and lowered depending on the need for space.

“If another team, the cheerleaders or anyone else needs to use the floor, they’ll be able to raise the cage all the way near the ceiling,” Rome said, noting those cages were installed at Destrehan in a prior project.

The building will also have male and female restrooms with a small foyer connecting them. The flooring in the facility will be of use to all athletic or extracurricular groups.At Destrehan, the new building will also be a weight training facility and will house the baseball team’s locker room; the building will be adjacent to the baseball field and DHS players and coaches will be able to access the building from the first base dugout. Previously, the baseball team had used the same fieldhouse as the football team.

Rome said the upgrades are part of an ongoing plan to upgrade the athletic facilities, one conceived as the student roster of each school grew larger.

“We had two schools with athletic facilities built for a Class 3A enrollment,” Rome said. “Over the years, we’ve seen them grow into Class 5A (the athletic classification for the state’s largest schools. We realized we needed to upgrade our facilities to match the population and needs of our schools.”