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Published March 31, 2009, 12:00 AM

East Ridge athletic facilities taking shape

With East Ridge High School opening in the fall of 2009, the home of the Raptors is nearly ready for action


The East Ridge wrestling room will be the Raptors' practice facility next winter. (photo by Tom Carothers).

  • The East Ridge wrestling room will be the Raptors' practice facility next winter. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • Currently full of lockers, East Ridge's gymanstics room is similar in size to the one at Park High School and will someday house the school's cardio exercise equipment as well as its gymnasts. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • East Ridge High School will have four locker rooms — including separate athletic and physical education facilities — along with a number of storage areas, offices and even a Nordic ski-waxing room. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • This week, lines and logos will begin to be added to the gym floor. On the center of the main court will be East Ridge’s raptor logo. (submitted image).
  • The East Ridge gym, and its expansive maple floor, is set up and lined for five courts — one main court and four auxiliary courts — each of which can each be divided by curtains.<br /><br />The gym also has six scoreboards — two large scoreboards for the main gym and one additional, smaller scoreboard for each auxiliary court. It also has a lofted mezzanine area, which will be a four-lane rubberized jogging track, between 1/6 and 1/7 of a mile around. In all, the East Ridge gym has 34 basketball hoops. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • With the ability to seat 2,200 fans, East Ridge’s gymnasium is a fieldhouse and gym combined, as in newer schools like Hastings, Lakeville South and Stillwater. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • East Ridge High School’s proximity to Woodbury’s Bielenberg Sports Complex gives the new school’s athletic facilities a major college campus feel. It’s almost like dropping a brand-new high school in the middle of Blaine’s National Sports Center.<br /><br />Available to East Ridge will be Bielenberg’s eight softball and baseball fields and six soccer and football fields, along with the eight new soccer fields projected to be on the city’s Danner site, which is located on the corner of Radio Drive and Pioneer Road and which will be seeded this spring. <br /><br />In addition, East Ridge has its own stadium for football, soccer and lacrosse, three additional soccer fields, two football practice fields, one tennis court, one baseball field and two softball fields. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • Because of an agreement between the school district and the city of Woodbury, sharing Bielenberg Sports Complex provides East Ridge student-athletes with much more than just eye candy.<br /><br />The school’s shared-use agreement allows for all of Bielenberg’s current fields to be available for the Raptors’ student-athletes. For example, the East Ridge varsity baseball team will play ball on Bielenberg No. 5 in the spring. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • Positioned at the bottom of a hill, and almost lost amidst the numerous fields of the East Ridge campus and the Bielenberg Sports Complex, is the school’s stadium — located a parking lot across from the activity center entrance.<br /><br />The top-loading stadium opens before your eyes as you approach its main entrance, on the 50-yard line of the field’s south side, which is where the home concession stand and press box are located. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • The stadium’s home stands — also the exact same as Woodbury’s home stands — are on the entrance side of the stadium along with a concessions area and press box. The home stands have black and gold internal panels, which will be visible from the bottom of the stands and from the field. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • The future home of the Raptors’ football, soccer, track and lacrosse teams, the field — which will be composed from the same turf as at Woodbury High School — will be surrounded by a nine-lane track. (photo by Tom Carothers).
  • The East Ridge football team opens up its inaugural season hosting fellow District 833 school Woodbury next fall. What will this scoreboard read on that Friday night? (photo by Patrick Johnson)
  • The school's scoreboard will be on the east side of the stadium this fall. But, as of last week, it was still in the parking lot. (photo by Patrick Johnson)
  • The entrance to the East Ridge Activity center is nearly all glass. Inside, the school has a massive gymnasium/fieldhouse, a wrestling room, a gymnastics room, a weight room and four locker rooms — including separate athletic and physical education facilities — along with a number of storage areas, offices and even a Nordic ski-waxing room. (photo by Patrick Johnson)