Warrior Stadium will be a ‘dream come true’ for school, parents, community

A group of parents from St. Michael High School dreamed of having a stadium that can accommodate the combined needs of its athletic program as well as numerous other possibilities. With some “number crunching,” continued generosity of donors and support of the school’s surrounding community, that dream is coming true with the construction of Warrior Stadium at SMHS.

 Warrior Stadium will be the only synthetic turf stadium among the Baton Rouge area high schools that will be used for football, soccer, and track, according to Jason Chauvin, SMHS advancement director.

 “We will be able to have all those sports on our campus,” said Chauvin.

 The 280,000 square-feet stadium includes 3,000 plus home and visitors’ seats. An eight-lane National College Athletic Association (NCAA) track will encircle the field.

Additional enmities include concessions, restrooms, locker rooms, team room, storage facilities, and LHSAA-certified LED/RGB lighting for track and field illumination with color light show feature.

The stadium will “complete” the St. Michael High School campus, according to Chauvin.

“What we were lacking is what we are building, a place for our students to stay here at home.”

For home games, the St. Michael football team, cheerleaders, and band traveled across town to Olympia Stadium on Perkins Road and the soccer team traveled to Burbank Soccer Complex on Burbank Drive.

“This is something that’s inconvenient,” said Chauvin.

Haleigh Gautreaux, SMHS head cheerleader coach, said, “I noticed that a lot of students were not traveling to the (home) games because their moms didn’t want them traveling across Baton Rouge on a Friday night, so there will be a lot more student involvement here at home. We’re excited about what it’s going to bring for our community as well as all the students. Everybody can be more involved.”

The new stadium will be utilized by St. Michael students as well students from SMH’S feeder schools: Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Jean Vianney School, and St. George School, all in Baton Rouge.

The project, which has been in the makings for about a year and a half, began when parents proposed the idea of the stadium as a “dream” they had. The finance chairman of the advisory board “put some numbers together” on how much it would cost to build the stadium and presented it to the SMHS administration.

A generous gift from a donor for the stadium allowed the high school administration to meet with Bishop Michael D. Duca’s office and the Diocesan Building Review Board. Then a fundraising campaign was started: “A Legacy United: Building the Campus of Tomorrow.”   A groundbreaking ceremony was held Oct. 25, 2023, which was attended by Bishop Duca, and several other dignitaries, and the St. Michael student body. Due to weather delays, the stadium won't be ready for football season. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2025.

An architectural rendering of Warrior Stadium

Even this year’s graduating class was supportive of the project, according to Chauvin.

“We did a video about the stadium and asked some of the graduating class, ‘What are your thoughts? We know you’re not going to play on it.’ and they said, ‘We’re just as excited. We view this as a family and our brothers and sisters will now get to play on the field. And we’ll definitely be back.’” 

“We see this as a great tool for enrollment,” added Chauvin. “There's a lot of buzz, a lot of talk, about Saint Michael, and we're excited about the next chapter.”

So far $5 million of the $8.5 million estimated cost has been raised for the facility.

For more information and to donate to the campaign, visit smhsbr.org/support/warrior-stadium.cfm .

The Warrior Stadium project was kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Bishop Michael G. Duca and several other dignitaries and the St. Michael High School student body.