Small Arizona High School To Be First With Own Dome

EAGAR, Ariz. - Don't look for the first high school with its own domed stadium in some affluent suburb of San Francisco, Dallas or New York.

It's in the Round Valley school district, nestled in the White Mountains just west of the Arizona-New Mexico line.

There, in one of the coldest, most impoverished spots in the state, the nearly completed structure is rising above a high school of about 500 students. When set up for basketball, it will have room for 9,000 spectators - more than the local population.

Four years in the making, the $11.5 million project has been delayed by a lawsuit and two construction deaths.

But the Round Valley Ensphere, as the construction company calls it, soon will be the first football-field-enclosing domed stadium built by a school district.

The otherwise unnamed structure is the biggest news here since Mark Gastineau, Round Valley's most prominent native son, was leading the NFL in sacks for the New York Jets in 1984.

Football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, wrestling and even softball games will be played in the wooden hemisphere, which is painted in three shades of pink. The dome, and Round Valley High School, straddle the line between Eagar, population 4,000, and Springerville, population 1,200.

School officials say the dome also will be used for physical education and by civic groups. And no one talks about nostalgia for playing outdoors. At 7,000 feet elevation, the climate belies

Arizona's reputation as hot and dry.

Winters are bitter, with temperatures frequently falling below zero, and snow is possible any time during the school year.

The school's football coach, Tot Workman, whose teams have won three state championships in 12 years, said he hopes the dome's 6,000 seats for football will be filled Oct. 11 for an inaugural game against Payson.

He joked about leaving the Elks' old field.

"I'm sure going to miss playing there when it's freezing and muddy," Workman said. "We lost only four games in 12 years on that field. But like I tell my kids, `We've never lost in the dome.' "

The residents of Round Valley probably couldn't have swung the deal themselves. But they approved a $12 million bond issue for the dome and some school repairs in 1987 after learning that Tucson Electric Power Co. would have to pay for most of it.

The financially ailing utility has a generating station that accounts for about 90 percent of the area's property values, so it pays 90 percent of the property taxes. The utility sued to block construction, but the suit was rejected by trial-level and appellate courts.

A few people don't see a need for the dome, including former school board member Glenn Jacobs, publisher of the conservative Round Valley Paper.

But most residents and students are looking forward to it.

"I've always been excited about it," said Shelley Ashcroft, a senior volleyball player. "At first I was thinking I'll be a senior when it would be done and that would be cool. We'll be able to get more people in and we'll have more community support."