This school in Rockingham has the best high school football stadium in North Carolina
The best high school football stadium in North Carolina is in Rockingham.
After a weeklong reader vote, Richmond Senior High School is the winner. The school’s Raider Stadium seats between 6,000 and 7,000, and for big games the fans will sit on grass hills around the field, allowing capacity to swell even larger.
The stadium was built in 1972, and Richmond quickly established itself as a premier N.C. power.
The Raiders won their first state championship in 1978, won three in a row from 1988-90, and they won back-to-back from 1997-98. The school’s most recent title was in 2008. Richmond is 7-1 all-time in state finals.
Richmond Senior coach Bryan Till said the school’s stadium and it’s home-field advantage has a lot to do with the school’s success.
“The thing is the ownership people take of it,” Till said. “People say, ‘That’s our stadium.’ It’s not like it’s just Raider Stadium. You hear old heads talk about 1972 when it was built and I see how much it means, just hearing people talk about it. You can hear it in their voices. People here have been sitting in the same seats since forever. We have a reserved (seating) section in the middle and people have been buying those tickets forever.”
▪ The Observer asked a panel of N.C. high school football experts their opinions about best stadiums and came up with a list of 23, including Charlotte’s Memorial Stadium. Since a school didn’t play there as its home field, Memorial wasn’t included in the vote. Richmond finished ahead of Charlotte Catholic and South Rowan.
This story was originally published August 6, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "This school in Rockingham has the best high school football stadium in North Carolina."
