AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – A 44,000-square-foot athletic center will provide students at Austintown Local Schools with a place to practice sports and participate in extracurricular activities during inclement weather.
Austintown Fitch High School junior Jayden Lumsden, who plays on the offensive line on the Falcons football team, said the new center, unveiled with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting Monday, will allow him to “get better during the offseason, when it’s cold and rainy – just to get more work in so we don’t have to be outside.”
Abby Toth, a senior on the high school softball team, said players will be able to use the center for hitting and pitching practice and scrimmages during cold or rainy weather.
“And it’ll help us, really, a lot with the offseason,” she added.
The center cost about $12 million, and Superintendent Timothy Kelty said the new building will also allow the band to practice marching during bad weather, and it will be available for student activities from throughout the district.
But it represents stability to the community too, the superintendent said.
“Opportunity looks good in Austintown,” Kelty said. “With all the instability of property tax and those things, the Austintown Local School District chose to show strength.”
The center includes accommodations for soccer, baseball, softball, football and other athletics, as well as the marching band.
“I know a kindergarten teacher that has an Easter egg hunt before Easter and she tries to get on the football field, so the kids will love it,” Kelty said. “We have to clear it off sometimes because of the snow. So she’d come in here. It’s a multifaceted way of using the facility during school.”
Treasurer Blaise Karlovic said the project is funded with local dollars.
“The last 10, 15 years, the board of education has set aside funds for capital and instructional improvements throughout the district, whether it was buying Chromebooks or new playground equipment at the K-5 buildings, we put a new roof on at Fitch. We did some electrical and HVAC updates of Fitch and [Austintown Middle School],” he said. “And some of those other funds helped jumpstart this.”
Strollo Architects of Youngstown was the project architect, and Hively Construction of Canfield was the contractor.
Besides the benefits for the district’s athletics, Kelty sees academic advantages as well. Students involved in sports and other activities learn the importance of regiment, punctuality and responsibility, he explained.
“Those things help your mental health, which helps you focus a little bit more with studying and those things,” which benefits the “whole student,” Kelty said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
Pictured at top: Austintown Local School District students cut a ribbon Monday to open the athletic center next to Fitch High School.