Gallery • 24 Photos

photos by Connor Rafferty

The Rocks' state-of-the-art athletic facilities help the school's student-athletes realize their potential.

Trinity is home to one of the most successful high school sports programs in the region. The Rocks have won 23 state football championships — with more than 500 wins overall — and the cross country team has 18 state crowns. And that’s just two of the school’s sports programs.  From fishing to swimming, from archery to intramural Ping Pong, from soccer to bowling, Rocks have many ways to round out their high school experience.

From humble beginnings, the Rocks have created state-of-the-art sports facilities that include a stadium, two basketball gyms, and a training center. All are used to their full potential, with the Marshall Stadium being used for football, soccer, lacrosse, rugby — and even cricket. Numerous teams use the weight room, including golf, baseball, football, wrestling — you name it.

The 26,000-square-foot Marshall Center is the heart of it all. It offers everything a student-athlete needs: year-round trainers, conference and film rooms, locker rooms (one for students, another for coaches), a 48-head shower room, and a laundry room. It has two floors, with the weight room, conference room, locker room, and coaches’ offices on the bottom floor. The top floor has another locker room and a wrestling area.

It wasn’t always like this. Trinity became a school in 1953, and the options for athletes to train were scarce.

A chronology of the facilities evolution follows:

• The first gym was brought over by barge from Cincinnati. It offered a small playing field, located near Westport Road.
• In 1960 the ball field was turned into a football and baseball stadium. It could seat 4,200 for football and 1,800 for baseball.
• In 1963 the gymnasium was razed, and its replacement was a field house.
• 1968 saw the building of the 2,000-seat Steinhauser Gym.
• The 2.7-acre Hislop property on Sears Avenue was bought in 1982. It was used as a practice field.
• Shamrock Hall was completed in 1976.
• In 1998 Trinity received a hefty donation — $500,000 from the Marshall Charitable Foundation Marshall Center — named after R.W. “Buck” Marshall for his donation and completed in 1999.
• The “new” Shamrock Hall was completed in 2000, replacing the old field house. It was renovated in 2003, adding air conditioning and a basketball locker room.
• In 2005 Marshall Stadium became a reality. Complete with press boxes on both sides, a new scoreboard and fencing.
• The Trinity Tennis Center at Top Gun Academy opened on Elite Boulevard in 2010, with seven outdoor courts built exclusively for use by Trinity’s team during its season.
• Steinhauser Gym’s lobby was remodeled, adding a new trophy case, a mural of Trinity basketball players, and an NFL “Homegrown Hall of Famer” plaque for Paul Hornung.
• Marshall Stadium received a turf field in 2013.
• This year, new flooring and equipment were provided for the Marshall Center’s weight room.

Coaches and players alike offered their thoughts on the ever-improving sports facilities:

History teacher Mr. Chad Waggoner, who began working at Trinity in 1998, coaches the cross country team and was named the school’s Athletic Coach of the Year for 2006 and 2010. He has seen the facilities undergo drastic changes.

Waggoner said, “When I first got here, Shamrock Gym was a hole in the wall, and the weight room was smaller than my classroom. It was in such poor condition. A baseball field was here, but it was a dirt pit. The football field was shared with the baseball field. In essence it sort of looked like the St. Martha field. There was no Marshall Center or Marshall Stadium.”    

Waggoner has seen dramatic improvements in the past 18 years. He also pointed out some desired additions.

“I don’t think we have any problems,” he said. “We have state-of-the-art facilities with the Marshall Center; our football field is awesome. Of course, because we are landlocked, we can’t have everything we would like. I would, of course, love to see a track at our own home site instead of having to go to Walden. It would be nice to have a swimming pool.”

Waggoner’s biggest hope for the future of the facilities is the addition of something that could make the phrase “there are no off days” a reality.

He said, “The one thing that I think all of our programs could use would be an indoor training facility — just a giant, open room with turf floor on the inside that we could use in the winter for all sorts of sports.

“We could use it for core strength and speed training. The football team could use a track, the cross country team could use it, all of our sports could use it — lacrosse, soccer, just everybody. An indoor field would be nice to have.”

Freshman Ben Mattingly, who is on the cross country team, praised Trinity’s athletic center.

He said, “I just like how it’s so convenient for the students. It’s on campus and easy to get to. It’s so nice. I don’t really see anything we need to make it better.”

Mathematics teacher Mr. Mike Chancellor graduated from Trinity in 1975. He played basketball and baseball, and ran cross country in his senior year.

Chancellor, who currently coaches the fishing team and works with intramurals, said the sports complex was “pretty rough” when he was in high school.

“It was definitely not like it is today, which is much improved. (It’s) nicer, safer, better for the athletes. The field for football, soccer, athletics for the P.E. guys — it’s just second to none.”

Chancellor wishes he had been able to practice baseball on an actual baseball field when he was at Trinity.

“When I played baseball, we practiced at Seneca Park,” he said. “We trained in the grass. We didn’t have a field to train on. Now, with the field (located at Thurman Hutchins) the players are actually practicing on the dimensions that they are used to playing on.”

Chancellor considers the biggest changes to the school’s facilities to be the turf field (which led to the relocation of the baseball field), the Marshall Center and the addition of the second gym.

“We had around 485 students participate in intramurals last year,” Chancellor said. “If we didn’t have the second gym, we wouldn’t be able to do that. It is well worthwhile.”

Chancellor seems content with where the facilities are now.

He said, “You could have your wildest dreams. From having a baseball field on site to a tennis center on site to having an indoor swimming pool, but we are locked in the city of St. Matthews. We can only do with the land we are permitted to have. Those are great dreams, but they cost a lot of money. But I think we do pretty well given our championships in various sports.”

Check out the sports facilities and students making good use of them. Videos by Connor Rafferty.