By Tom Lanigan

Special to the Charlotte Gazette

The future looks bright for the Randolph-Henry High School Statesmen’s athletics program. The program expanded to include a new girls varsity soccer team that began play this year.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the overall experience for our student-athletes,” Athletics Director Chris Holt said.

When asked about possible future improvements for teams playing on the field, Holt said, “There are subtle improvements that occur daily without much fanfare. As mentioned previously, we have had a free light assessment done by Musco Lighting on all our athletic facilities here at R-HHS and CMS. Proper light levels are important for participant safety and enhance the spectator experience as well.” Holt said that R-H is looking into costs for a potential renovation of the infield at Bankston Field.

“After countless years of use with no major renovation, the playing surface has become compromised. This is a normal progression over time and simply needs to be addressed for player safety and overall playability.” While going over other possible improvements for team sports playing on the field, Holt said, “Our football bleachers received a major upgrade in the in the summer of 2014. There are no current plans for other bleacher upgrades.”

Holt discussed plans for the wrestling team.

“Our wrestling team will have a home of their own soon. We are moving our weight room from CMS to R-HHS. This will allow our wrestling team to have a quality area to compete as well as access to locker rooms and restrooms. There are also discussions about continuing to utilize the current annex building to house a visiting team locker room. This could come to fruition as early as summer 2016.”

The Statesmen have plans to keep marching forward and make their mark and continue to attract a strong and loyal fan following.

“Our overall fan attendance has been respectable,” Holt said. “This community traditionally supports R-HHS very well and that has continued. If you have a quality product in the way they play the game and that leads to success; those attendance numbers will increase significantly each season.”

“We want our student-athletes to be leaders with highest character on our campus and beyond,” Holt said. “This includes the classroom, within the team and in this community. Our goal is to finish in the top three in the James River District in all sports. If our teams will play for one another and we get a little luck along the way; VHSL state titles are the ultimate goal.”