Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – The long wait is almost over. The Lakeshirts Fieldhouse at Detroit Lakes High School is ready to host its first high school basketball games.
The new state-of-the-art 2,500 seat arena will open its doors for fans as Detroit Lakes basketball hosts a double-header at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, January 4th.
“We’re super excited,” says Laker junior forward Jacee Hauser. “We’ve been sneaking peaks in there for a while.”
Hauser and the Laker girls basketball team (1-3 overall, 1-0 section) will play the first game in the new gymnasium against St. Cloud on Tuesday night, followed by the boys (1-4 overall, 0-2 section) as they face Perham.
The Laker girls team will become acclimated with their new home very quickly…six of their next nine games will be played at the Lakeshirts Fieldhouse, including four straight games after the middle of January.
The new scoreboard at Lakeshirts Fieldhouse
The new gymnasium features 12 hoops, an overhead scoreboard, and the large LED scoreboard has been moved from the Ralph Anderson Gymnasium to the south wall of the arena.
“I think one of the cool parts of the new gym will be the student section,” says Detroit Lakes activities director Rob Nielsen. “In the old gym, they were up on the stage. Over here, they’ll be right under the basket. It’s going to create a whole new environment on game nights.”
The training room at the Lakeshirts Fieldhouse
Another one of the new features is a trainers room located just off the court.
“You’ll be hard-pressed to find another trainers room as nice as this one in the area, or even the state at this level,” says Nielsen. “I think once people realize what we’ve built here, we’re going to have more out-of-town tournaments and playoff games here. We’re able to accommodate that now. It’s going to be a great thing for our community to host these other activities in here.”
As some fans walk into the arena for the first time on Tuesday night, it will continue to take shape over the upcoming weeks and months.
“There is still a little work to do in there,” says Neilsen. “A lot of cosmetic work. We’re going to put some TVs and photos on the walls on the upper walking track and we still have to put together the permanent media area for running the video equipment. With supply issues, we’re still waiting on benches for our locker rooms but we’ll have chairs in there for the kids this week. And the actual walking track is scheduled to be here in March sometime so it’s just concrete up there. But it will be ready for basketball on Tuesday night.”
You can listen to both games beginning at 6:00 on KDLM and on the Lakes Area Radio app.
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