From classes to rehearsals to practices, Nixa’s new facility, the Apex Activity Center, has hosted students across programs.
The Apex opened in late July as a place for students in various sports and activities to use, offering a 105,000-square-foot indoor space that includes a 120-yard turf field. Athletics and Activities Director Dr. Brandon Clark said the district purchased 38 acres east of Eagle Stadium to build the Apex, leaving additional land for future use. While no plans have been finalized, he called the facility part of a long-range plan that gives the district options on what they build next.
Clark said possibilities for the remaining land include baseball and softball fields, new tennis courts, a cross-country course and a soccer complex. These additions would give programs more flexibility. For example, scheduling soccer games.
“Soccer can never play a game on Monday nights because every Monday night is a [junior varsity] football game,” Clark said. “It makes it hard for soccer to have any flexibility.”
On the field, a curtain can be dropped to divide it into two, allowing two teams to practice at the same time.
“With the curtain, football and [soccer] can both go in there,” Evan Palmer, head soccer coach, said. “We can’t have our full practice, but we can get something done with half a field.”
The complex has enough space to host a few soccer games for the C-team, which was started last year. However, Palmer said the building’s height may affect long balls, as they might hit the ceiling.
“We’re going to experiment and see how it works inside,” Palmer said. “I think if you kick the ball, it goes and deflects to somebody else, play on.”
By centralizing bathrooms and locker rooms, the Apex allows the district to add new fields and buildings around it without additional infrastructure costs.
“The indoor facility became a hub for us as we look to expand,” Clark said.
While teams like soccer and football can practice on half a field, the marching band requires a full-sized space, and the Apex offers that indoor space.
Nixa Public Schools Director of Bands, Craig Finger, said the high school band has had to adjust what he calls their “outside voice.” Playing inside makes the sound bounce off ceilings and walls, making the music louder. Outside, their sound doesn’t bounce off as much, so the band sounds quieter.
“The sound in the Apex is echoey and reverberant,” Finger said. “Listening in a marching band is more challenging than what a lot of people realize because of sound delay over space.”
Senior Liviya Battaglia, a flute player and a member of the Peer Leadership Team for marching band, said when she plays her flute outside, sometimes a strong gust of wind can catch her instrument at just the right angle, blowing across the mouthpiece and making it play on its own.
“Usually the wind is blowing the opposite way that I’m supposed to blow,” Battaglia said. “That makes it really hard for me to get a sound out.”
Wind can make it harder to hear the band’s music, a problem that doesn’t happen in the Apex. To prepare for outdoor competitions, Finger has the band practice outside whenever possible.
“We want to be in the stadium, unless scheduling or weather has us going to the Apex,” Finger said.
In the stadium, Finger teaches from the press box and relies on a speaker, often missing students’ faces and reactions. But in the Apex, he uses an elevated platform that is next to one of the long walls in the middle of the field so he can look out over the band. Practicing in both locations has made him realize he missed teaching close to the field.
“If I’m not careful, the kids can go through a two and a half hour practice and hear my voice, but never see my face,” Finger said. “In the Apex, sometimes I don’t even have to use my speaker. I can just talk, and a kid right there talks back.”
Physical education classes have been using the Apex when the weather is too hot, cold or rainy for outdoor activity. The soft turf has led some students to ditch their shoes while on the field.
“If you don’t mind getting your socks dirty or picking up the black remnants of the turf, it is more of a comfort thing,” Andrew Boyce, physical education teacher, said.
The Apex is also a facility for the community, as it has a community room and will host One Nixa classes, which offers community courses that cover various topics from gardening to driving safety.
“If you go in there, respect it,” Palmer said. “It’s not just for our schools, but for the community.”
