On a recent Tuesday night, the stands shook as fans cheered on the Northern High School’s girls soccer team. The action was taking place on the football field. Meanwhile, behind the spectators, a new soccer field lay silent, empty and unused.
The new Northern High, a $96 million school and athletic complex, opened in September 2023. Since then, though, community members have complained about inadequate, poorly designed athletic facilities.
The school’s soccer and lacrosse teams are unable to play on their new field, which sits vacant on game nights. The small field is sandwiched between a brick concession building and North Roxboro Road, with no safety net preventing balls from going into the road.
Community members complain of the undersized field built too close to the road as well as cramped locker rooms, missing batting cages and more — and they’re frustrated that it’s taking so long to get the athletic facilities into shape years after the school opened.
“It’s obviously new,” Charlie Dickerson, the vice president of Northern’s booster club, said of the new Northern’s athletic facilities. “But I would probably use the word not what the taxpayers paid for.”
In an emailed statement to The 9th Street Journal, David Hackney, the school system’s athletics director since 2019, said the district is aware of parents’ concerns.
“We understand and acknowledge the concerns raised by parents,” he wrote. “As a large district managing multiple schools and facilities, we must prioritize needs across the system.
“While some improvements may take time, student safety remains our highest priority, and we are committed to addressing concerns as efficiently as possible.”
He added that, “All Northern High School athletic facilities are in compliance with the regulations set by the NCHSAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations.”
Nonetheless, the school’s athletic teams have faced a bumpy ride at the new Northern from the start. During its first season at the new school, Northern’s football team played all but the last two of its home games elsewhere — at the Durham County Stadium and Jordan High School — because the football field at the new Northern High wasn’t ready. Other outdoor teams practiced at the old campus due to construction delays.
The football field is getting ample use now by several different teams. However, there are other issues with the school’s athletic facilities, such as the cramped locker room.
The football stadium field house was supposed to be two stories high, with ample locker room space. That never materialized. Instead, the field house includes three shower stalls and 45 lockers for boys’ junior varsity and varsity football teams that can include over 80 players altogether.
“Due to budget constraints, certain elements of the original design plans were modified or removed,” Hackney wrote.
‘We don’t have the funding that we need’
On practice days, there are other complications, especially when other teams are playing on the football field — such as boys’ soccer, which shares the field in the fall. On those days, football players must visit three locations before practice begins. They change in the school’s gym locker rooms, walk down to the field house to grab pads and helmets, then tote their helmets and pads from the field house to the football practice field — a total distance of more than a quarter mile — because there is no storage near the field.
Lee Rodio, a 2016 Northern graduate, said that in moving to the new campus, students lost the dedicated practice and game space they had at the old school.
“When you’re having a football season and a soccer season at the same time, the field degrades faster, the upkeep costs are higher, and it takes away a resource in going to the new stadium that was available and regularly utilized by the students at the old stadium,” said Rodio.
And in spring, if all teams are active, as many as four sports teams — girls soccer, boys and girls lacrosse and co-ed track and field — share the football field for home games.
Softball and baseball players face a different problem. Their equipment is stored near their practice fields — but in large temporary containers from the old Northern High, which sit in the new school’s parking lot.
That isn’t the only issue affecting the softball and baseball teams, Northern senior Cole Fuller pointed out.
“We don’t have a press box, we have to go inside [the school] to use the bathroom, we don’t have a locker room and it’s just so much stuff,” said Fuller, a catcher for the baseball team.
The baseball and softball fields are located far from the field house. As a result, Fuller said, baseball players change in their cars before practice and games.
“You typically change before you even go out there, like in your car,” he said. “It’s everybody.”
Until recently, the baseball team did not have a batting cage, which is standard for high school baseball teams. So for much of this spring, some Northern baseball players used private facilities to practice, Fuller said.
“We didn’t have the capabilities to get better like some of the other teams did unless we were doing it on our own,” he said.
Parents and coaches recently came together to install the baseball batting cage, Fuller said. However, the softball team still lacks one. The district purchased and delivered cages for both programs to Northern last summer, Hackney said.
Equipment has also been lacking, Fuller said. A coach had to buy a pitching machine so that the players could get batting practice, he said.
“We don’t have the funding that we need,” Fuller said.
Northern’s principal, Emmet Alexander, who has led the school since January 2024, did not respond to requests for comment.
Flawed design; missing safety nets
Community members also say several of the school’s athletic fields are poorly designed.
The soccer/lacrosse field was built directly adjacent to North Roxboro Road, with just 71 feet separating the field’s fence from the road.
Community members say balls can be kicked over the fence, and a safety net is imperative, said Kirk West, president of the school booster club.
“Balls are going over into Roxboro Road, which would then either cause an accident, and at minimum, we lose nice soccer balls that get run over, or kids get hit running out to try to get a ball,” West said in an interview.
Rodio also criticized the planning of the baseball and softball fields. The two fields butt up against one another with no safety nets between them, and as a result, a foul ball from one field could end up in the other, he said.
“You’re perpetually having to look over your shoulder to make sure a foul ball is not coming from the opposite field because no one in this whole process asked someone who had a clue about baseball or softball about how you should position the fields,” he said. “There are numerous people at the district level whose job is to clock that and say, ‘this isn’t how this needs to happen.’”
Hackney said the district is working to address the lack of safety nets.
“Work orders have been submitted to address safety enhancements, including protective netting,” he said. “These improvements are in progress and will be completed in accordance with district timelines and safety standards.”
‘Fingers Pointed’
Rodio, West and Dickerson shared their frustrations about Northern’s athletic facilities at a school board meeting last March. They cited a small soccer/lacrosse field, the lack of batting cages for the softball and baseball teams and the inefficiency of having one locker room for all outdoor sports.
They also complained about lost revenue at the school. Most schools are able to rent out their facilities for events, which can be a valuable source of income for school sports teams. At Northern, there were significant delays in the buildings being “released” for outside rental.
Northern’s facilities were not available for rental during the new school’s first year in operation “because the facilities were under warranty” Hackney said. Now, the facilities are available for rental “subject to the school’s discretion and scheduling availability,” he said.
However, DPS’s website states that school facility use is managed by the district’s Facilities Usage Department. “Reservation requests and payments may be completed online at Facilitron DPS Facility Usage.”
The page lists 11 high schools where interested parties can rent out anything from gyms and athletic fields to classrooms. Northern’s campus is not included.
West says it’s been hard to get anyone to take responsibility for the school’s flawed athletic facilities.
“I’ve mainly seen fingers pointed, a lack of accountability and I’ve seen tens of thousands of dollars lost due to the lack of facilities and also due to the school not being ‘released,’” he said at the meeting.
The district has fixed some issues Rodio, West and Dickerson identified, such as providing a batting cage for the baseball team. However, other problems remain.
Colleen Miller, a Northern parent whose daughter plays on the soccer team, described a breakdown in communication between school leadership and parents. She said parents are the ones who keep her informed about problems with the school’s athletics facilities.
“We haven’t really been provided information from the school itself as to issues with the facilities,” she said. “It’s just kind of been hearing it through other people.”
Rodio and Dickerson asked the school board to meet with the Northern community to further discuss the problems.
“We’re formally requesting that this board schedule a town hall meeting to be held on Northern’s campus, so these issues can be effectively communicated to you, since DPS central office has demonstrated a repeated unwillingness to act on our numerous safety, liability and equity issues and signaled loud and clear to our students that they do not care,” Rodio said at the meeting.
School board members did visit the school in the fall of 2025, walking around the campus with the school principal, Dickerson said.
Still, many of the booster club’s grievances still haven’t been resolved, he said.
Bettina Umstead, who chairs the school board, did not respond to requests for comment.
For Dickerson, the new Northern has so many issues that the old school seems appealing by comparison.
“On the surface if you ride by the school, everybody says, ‘Oh, that’s a beautiful place, I bet that school is really nice,’” said Dickerson. “But, if somebody gave it to me, you don’t want to sound ungrateful, but you’re like, ‘I don’t want this. Our other school was better.’”
***
Full Response from David Hackney, DPS Director of Athletics, Health/P.E., & Drivers Education at Durham Public Schools:
It is critically important to note that all Northern High School athletic facilities are in compliance with the regulations set by the NCHSAA and the National Federation of State High School Association.
School administration has worked closely with contractors and district leadership to identify and address concerns as they have arisen. While many items have already been resolved, the school continues to collaborate with district staff to address any remaining structural or facility-related issues.
The district takes all concerns seriously and has responded by outlining and addressing reported issues. District leadership has also conducted site visits to verify progress and ensure that concerns are being appropriately resolved.
We understand and acknowledge the concerns raised by parents. As a large district managing multiple schools and facilities, we must prioritize needs across the system. While some improvements may take time, student safety remains our highest priority, and we are committed to addressing concerns as efficiently as possible.
On the lack of batting cages and safety nets:
Batting cages for both softball and baseball were purchased and delivered in the summer of 2025. Additionally, work orders have been submitted to address safety-related concerns, including protective netting, and these items are being handled through established district processes.
On the lack of a safety net between the soccer/lacrosse field and North Roxboro Road:
As noted, work orders have been submitted to address safety enhancements, including protective netting. These improvements are in progress and will be completed in accordance with district timelines and safety standards.
On the lack of a safety net between the baseball and softball fields:
This concern is also being addressed through the same process, with work orders submitted to ensure appropriate safety measures are implemented.
On the delay in providing batting cages for baseball and softball teams:
The purchase of batting cages is managed at the school level in coordination with the athletic department. District Athletics supported this effort by purchasing and delivering batting cages for both programs in summer 2025. The softball batting cage is currently pending assembly.
On the altered design for the field house:
Due to budget constraints, certain elements of the original design plans were modified or removed. The second story of the field house was not included in the final construction scope.
On the small size and placement of the soccer/lacrosse field:
The design and placement of athletic facilities were determined based on available land and overall campus planning considerations. School and district leadership worked with the design team to maximize the use of space and provide opportunities for a wide range of student activities.
On parents’ complaint that the school is losing money because it cannot rent out its athletics facilities:
During the first year of operation, the facilities were under warranty and therefore not available for external use. At this time, the facilities are available for rental, subject to school discretion and scheduling availability.
Above: Spectators watch the Northern girls’ soccer team compete on the school’s football field. Photo by Yaa Bame — The 9th Street Journal
Yaa Bame
