St. Michael eager to open first on-campus football stadium
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
St. Michael the Archangel seniors Payton Dawson and Nathan Contine wanted to soak in the feeling a little longer.
The Warriors had exited their locker room and were headed for a hill leading to their new, on-campus football facility for the team’s spring game in May.
“It was absolutely beautiful,” Dawson said. “We just waited in the back. We were jumping up and down, hooting and hollering. We ran onto our field. It was an amazing feeling.”
When you’ve never had your own football field to call home, it’s understandable the extra beats pumping through the hearts of St. Michael’s football team. The Warriors experienced running through a gigantic inflatable helmet to the turf field, toward their own sideline, and celebrated with their fans.
This was just a spring game that didn’t count in the standings, but for a school that’s chronicled to have played football since 1987, it was a euphoric state of mind to play in its new 2,500-3,000-seat, multimillion-dollar digs known as Warrior Stadium.
“It became a reality over a dream,” said St. Michael’s fifth-year football coach Zach Leger, a 2003 graduate of the school.
St. Michael hosts its first jamboree – the Battle on Monitor (Avenue) – on Aug. 28 when the Warriors play the third game of the day at approximately 8 p.m. against North Iberville.
The Warriors will wait two weeks to christen their new home field on Sept. 12 with a District 6-4A contest with Tara. They will also have Belaire for their homecoming on Sept. 26.
“We’re grateful as a senior class,” said St. Michael punter Ben Jones, also a center back on the soccer team. “All the teams that were ahead of us didn’t get to experience this. Past players will be there and are excited for us. We’re glad that we’ve had a lot of people come together and got this very nice stadium built. To be the first class to experience that, I’m super grateful.”
Leger’s tried to impress upon this year’s team – the 38th in school history – the unique opportunity they’ve been presented to help create a legacy for the future of the program.
“There have been 37 teams that have come before you that have dreamed of the opportunity and the moment you’re about to take part in,” Leger told his team. “That’s 37 years of guys going through it in the summer, going through it in the fall, wishing they had something at their school to call home.
“To be able to be the first group to walk down that hill,” Leger said, “experience it, and set the tone for what St. Michael football will become is unspeakable. It’s a priceless moment that will be amazing.”
St. Michael long called Olympia Stadium, one of Baton Rouge’s two public football stadiums, home for decades. The Warriors also played home games for several years at the Louisiana Leadership Institute.
Both venues came with their own set of challenges, but without their own place to play, the Warriors loaded a bus around 5 p.m. each Friday for a 13-mile trek to Olympia and a 17-mile drive to Louisiana Leadership.
Taking into consideration Baton Rouge traffic on a Friday evening, the time on a bus could add up.
“We would play some music to get our minds right on the bus ride over to Olympia,” Jones said. “When we got there, we sat behind the stadium because. We thought how great if we had a stadium at our school and how great that would be.”
The area behind the school that now features the glistening new stadium served as the team’s practice field, surrounded by a chain-link fence, which sat at the end of a downward slope, encountering its share of tests following heavy rains.
“We get a little more time,” Leger said. “We’re not loading up a bus at 5:05. We’re starting to get dressed at that time. We get to come back up into our own space at halftime, break down film, and talk to the guys. We’ll dress in our place with our own bathrooms.”
Leger recalled stripping the practice field four years ago for the team to host a scrimmage, which drew a group of excited students, providing an indication of what playing on campus may look and sound like.
The Warriors’ soccer team, which played the great majority of their home games at Burbank Soccer Complex, turned the space into a home field when weather permitted.
Moreover, since the school didn’t have a suitable track, it conducted its practices at nearby Woodlawn High School and had to travel to meets.
“As the track coach, it was hard to convince kids to come run track here,” Leger said. “We had a two-lane, limestone ring around a grass field. No throwing areas, no way to train pole vaulters or hurdlers, or high jumpers.”
St. Michael’s vision for an all-purpose facility was far reaching, breaking ground in November of 2023 to construct a football field that would also serve as the home of the two soccer teams, with an all-weather track to host meets for boys and girls.
The school’s physical education classes would also be able to use it as well.
“It’s Warrior Stadium,” Leger said. “It’s for everybody.”
Before the construction of a stadium came to fruition, Leger said there were discussions stretching back to 2022 about purchasing an artificial turf field that Northwestern State was selling.
Installation of the turf, coupled with the drainage work, was projected at $50,000, but there would have been additional costs that didn’t make the project cost-prohibitive and it was scrapped.
“We figured if we’re going to spend all of this money, let’s just do it the right way and do it on a full scale,” Leger said. “Then, fast forward, we had some people behind the scenes that wanted to make it happen. It got presented and was approved.”
The venture broke ground in the latter part of last November and brought a new way of doing things for the football and soccer programs last fall.
The football team moved to the outfield portion of the on-campus baseball facility for practice while the proposed football stadium began taking shape.
“I heard people in the neighborhood had to agree because it would be loud,” Jones said. “It took a while. Once I actually heard that it was happening, I was super excited. For a little bit, I was scared that it wouldn’t happen while I was there.”
The dirt work and drainage didn’t garner much attention, but were an important part of setting the stage for the rest of the facility to unfold.
Once the distinct green turf was laid down, with a silver sword through the school’s block red ‘M’ at midfield, it quickly became a conversation piece on campus.
“When they laid down the turf, everybody got excited,” Leger said. “When you saw the green starting to go down, it made it feel like we were getting close. Then the letters were laid out, the ‘M’ was laid out, and they sewed it all in.”
Jones said his eyes lit up at the sight of the light standards surrounding the field, providing additional tangible evidence to the project.
“That’s when I thought, this is actually happening,” he said. “This is going to be done relatively soon. Then, when there was power to the lights, another big step, and I was blown away, and I still am.”
Each phase brought about a greater sense of enthusiasm.
The arrival of the goal posts was another layer, followed by the bleachers, which are the width of the field and 10 rows high, a large scoreboard with replay capability, restrooms, and signage.
St. Michael’s soccer team got a sneak peek of the facility with three straight wins to close out its regular season. The Warriors also hosted their Division III state regional playoff against Archbishop Shaw.
“We all looked forward to this field coming,” Dawson said. “A lot of the juniors and seniors were worried that it wouldn’t get built in time, and we wouldn’t be able to experience that. When it was finally finished, it was a breath of fresh air. We were excited to get on the field.”
The football team had one game-like experience in the stadium in the spring where they walked down the hill in unison, past the statue of St. Michael the Archangel, through its inflatable helmet onto the turf field to face Fontainebleau.
The result may not have been what the team desired, but they all truly felt like winners that day.
“I loved Olympia,” Leger said. “It’s just something different coming out in your own space. It was so much more of a game-day vibe. It was a great feeling.”
Jones believed the spring game whetted the team’s appetite for the fall.
“It went excellent,” he said. “We walked out of the locker room with linked arms together. We ran through the inflated helmet, and that was cool. It was such a different experience than getting off of a bus to go play at Olympia. It was surreal. I’m sure that’s how the first home game to open the season will be.”
St. Michael also conducted its commencement ceremonies in May. Leger also looks forward to hosting some of the football games of its feeder schools, including the annual Warrior Bowl, which is a matchup of the top 5-6th grade Catholic League teams in the area.
The roar of a partisan crowd and the sounds of its band striking up the school’s alma mater will both serve to create the kind of atmosphere St. Michael’s team covets.
The timing between the new facility and the 2025 season couldn’t have been better for a program that’s made steady improvement with greater expectations.
“We’re trying to get them to understand the opportunity,” Leger said. “We have worked for four years to build and change the culture of this program, what the public opinion is of this program. We’ve gone to the quarterfinals. We’ve played on Thanksgiving week. We’ve been in the top eight (power) rankings. We’ve had that success now.
“With the advent of the stadium and creation of what that brings with it, it is the perfect time to continue to elevate this program to the next level and stay there,” he said. “To be a quarterfinal, semifinal team. To be a team that people are talking about in the postseason.”
St. Michael has put together four straight playoff appearances with the school’s first postseason win in 2023 over Livingston Collegiate.
Winning seasons in consecutive years are a sign of the development of the program. The Warriors, 6-5 a year ago, will have upwards of 84 players on their roster, which will be a school-record total when they kickoff.
“They’ve seen the progression and now it’s on their shoulders to finish it out the right way and continue to lay that groundwork and build those walls,” Leger said of his eight-member senior class. “The base is there; the foundation is set. Time to frame up the walls and put the roof on it.”
Dawson feels a win in the school’s first home contest with Tara would resonate with the team’s underclassmen.
“We want the first game to be a win and leave a legacy behind for the freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We want them to look forward to playing there in the future. I want them to be able to look to us as a legacy that cared about this amazing field.”
St. Michael put down its share of sweat equity in its pristine stadium this summer. Conditioning workouts, which left players dripping with sweat, were another key component that factored into the development of a mindset ripe with high expectations.
They’re primed to show off their new home stadium, a place they want to turn into an unpleasant trip for opponents.
“I’m super excited to have an actual place to call home,” Jones said. “I’m hoping I get the first kickoff in the new stadium. That would be awesome.”
“Running out onto the field felt so amazing,” Dawson said. “It’s going to be a beautiful feeling. During a game, I can imagine the adrenaline rush. I can’t wait.”