2. Round Valley Ensphere — Eagar, Ariz.
The Round Valley Ensphere is the first indoor high school football venue in America, at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet in eastern Arizona.
Photo courtesy of SPS+ Architects
In
this high-altitude area of Arizona near the New Mexico border, around
7,000 feet above sea level, lives the eighth largest geodesic dome
structure in the world. It's the first domed high school football stadium
in the United States, and it can host a football game, tennis match and
basketball or volleyball game all at the same time.
Round Valley (Eagar, Ariz.) uses the Ensphere for football, basketball, track, wrestling, volleyball and tennis. And sometimes two at once.
"During winter sports we have two big wooden courts so we
might do varsity boys on one side and then on the other side freshman
girls at the same time," said Guy Phelps, athletic director. "Around the end of football season it gets really cold up here."
There's
about 189,000 square feet of space and the building was constructed for
$11 million and finished in 1991, according to the "Off the Beaten Path Arizona: A Guide to Unique Places" book. Eagar has about 4,500 residents.
Phelps
said it's quite a home-field advantage, and the Ensphere can get very
loud. On the flip side, he added, it can be hard for Round Valley teams to
play outdoors on the road.
Interestingly, ensphere is actually a
verb, not a noun. And also of note, President George W. Bush has visited
the Ensphere, though it was during destructive wildfires that hit
eastern Arizona in 2002.
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