Indoor practice facilities are as much utility as status symbol in Georgia
Valdosta is the newest school to join a multimillion-dollar trend accelerating across Georgia high school football programs.
The state’s winningest football program is days away from opening a $16.75 million indoor practice facility, according to WTXL Tallahassee, which will feature a 120-yard indoor football field, a kitchen for player nutrition and film rooms.
An increasing number of South Georgia schools have invested in the facilities, which allow their football teams to practice despite inclement weather. GHSA regulations prohibit outdoor practices at a certain level of heat and humidity and when lightning strikes within a 10-mile radius, but indoor practices are considered safe.
They’re also often seen as a status symbol that validates a program’s desire to win. Valdosta coach Shelton Felton said the fact that region rivals Colquitt County and Lowndes already had indoor facilities was key to Valdosta getting its own.
“You have to keep up with the Joneses, so to say,” Felton said. “Because they have it, we need it.”
He said they’re also key to keeping Valdosta football players at home.
“The, ‘My daddy played (for Valdosta), my grandaddy played (for Valdosta), so I’m going to play for Valdosta,’ those times have changed,” Felton said. “Kids that come to the ninth grade have the freedom to go wherever they want to go, high school-wise. They want big, shiny things, and it doesn’t help you when your competitor across the street got it, and Colquitt has it.
“Kids see this thing, and they want to be a part of it, and they want to have it. So, to keep your homegrown kids, you need to keep up with it.”
Blue-blooded programs like Valdosta, Lowndes and Colquitt County are in an arms race against each other, but they’re also competing on a national scale. High schools across the country are building multimillion dollar facilities, and Felton doesn’t plan on being left behind.
“We want to stay relevant, and that’s the key,” Felton said. “We want to make sure Valdosta football is relevant on and off the field, and we want our facilities to be top-notch compared to anybody.”
Colquitt County was the first Georgia high school to build a full-size indoor football field, according to coach Sean Calhoun. The 10th-year head coach was Colquitt County’s offensive coordinator when former head coach Rush Propst was planning the facility.
Calhoun saw the plans in 2015, his final season with the Packers, before he became head coach at Carrollton.
Four years later, Carrollton had one, too.
“The benefit is that it’s truly, during the school days, the most used facility on campus,” Calhoun said. “I think people get a misconception that it’s just for football, and it’s definitely not.”
Calhoun said the facility is available for all Colquitt County teams, PE classes, ROTC workouts and band practice. It’s also used for community events from birthday parties to the county’s Special Olympics program.
The biggest advantage it offers Calhoun’s team is on days when outdoor practice isn’t allowed. On those days, most high school teams spend the day watching film or mimicking practice in a gym.
“If you’re in the gym, I mean, it truly is a glorified walk-through,” Calhoun said. “You can’t tackle. You really can’t even thud or wrap up, because someone’s going to the ground and that basketball court does not give.
“You’re in shoes, and it’s kind of hard every once in a while to keep kids locked in.”
Coffee coach Mike Coe has spent his career in North Florida and South Georgia heat. Summer practices are obviously hot, but he’s seen hot practices persist through October and into the playoffs.
“I played in the state championship at (Madison County in Florida) on December the 7th, and it was 91 degrees,” Coe said. “Man, it wears on you.”
Coe also saw immediate change in his players when Coffee opened its indoor practice facility in 2024.
“You’re outside in that stuff every day in pads and a helmet, and kids start losing a lot of weight and stuff like that,” Coe said. “Here, you can stay fresh as the year goes on.”
Perhaps no Georgia high school has made more noise with its indoor facility than Thomas County Central did when it officially opened its $25 million building in March. The reigning Class 5A champions’ facility includes a full-size field, a weight room, a training room, a band practice room, coaches’ offices, nutrition rooms and more.
That variety of facilities is Thomas County Central coach Justin Rogers’ favorite feature. Unlike Colquitt County, Carrollton and Lowndes, Rogers pointed out, the Yellow Jackets don’t have to walk from their facility to the weight room.
The football field was also large enough for Thomas County Central to host an indoor two-day padded camp with four other teams in mid-July. The Yellow Jackets’ varsity and ninth grade teams competed against Creekside, Troup County, Calhoun County and Baconton Charter.
“It was awesome to be able to have these guys come down and be able to get everything in knowing we didn’t have to worry about weather, we didn’t have to worry about (heat and humidity), we didn’t have to worry about anything,” Rogers said. “We’re just going to come here and work nothing but the ball.”
Rogers compared the indoor facility trend to another movement that swept Georgia nearly 20 years ago.
“It’s kind of like turf fields in 2008, 2009, when turf fields took off,” Rogers said. “Everybody started getting them, and by 2015, you were the outlier (if you didn’t have one).
“I play on turf way more than I play on grass, and I think when we fast forward six years from now, that’s what you’re going to see with these indoor (facilities) and these pavilions.”
Some schools have built cheaper versions of the indoor facilities. Open-air pavilions over fields still provide cover from rain and lightning but don’t have HVAC, which is less necessary in northern parts of Georgia.
Some smaller schools have saved money by building partial indoor fields. Weather is still controlled, but teams with smaller rosters don’t need the same amount of practice space as a larger school does.
“I think lower (classification) schools, you have 35 to 55 kids, and the majority of your practice in the first hour is going to be offensive emphasis and everybody flips because probably 90% of your kids go both ways, so you probably don’t need 100 yards,” Calhoun said.
Class 3A team Callaway has an indoor field that stretches 45 yards, and that’s all that coach Pete Wiggins needs. The Cavaliers had 43 players on their varsity roster last season, according to MaxPreps.
It’s a smaller community in Hogansville, making the indoor facility a point of pride for Wiggins and his team.
“So many people have worked really hard over a long period of time as far as establishing a great tradition and respect around the state, so certainly to come on our campus and to see a new and wonderful (indoor facility), there’s a tremendous sense of pride in that,” Wiggins said.
Dawson County coach Jaybo Shaw was at Rabun County when the Class 2A school became one of Georgia’s first to build a covered partial football field.
“It’s not full regulation, but at the time, it was gold, especially at a smaller school,” Shaw said.
Shaw said the facilities aren’t just an allurement for student-athletes. They’re also an attractive feature to coaches.
“If I was interviewing at a place that had an indoor, like, boom, that took care of a lot of worries and stresses on bad weather practices and heat problems,” Shaw said.
Does Shaw have an indoor facility at Dawson County?
“No, but you can guess what I’m lobbying for,” he said.