TURTLE CREEK, Pa. — The road to the Wolvarena isn’t easy to navigate.
It’s located on Lynn Avenue, a narrow two-lane patch of pavement peppered with dips and hills and more twists than an Agatha Christie novel.
Throw in some rain, which is what greeted the Manatee Hurricanes as they made their way to the cavernous stadium for a brisk 30-minute walkthrough Friday evening, and the trip gets downright thrilling.
Step foot inside the Wolvarena — or Turtle Creek Stadium, if you would like to use its proper name — and you’ll quickly discover it’s worth the trip.
It’s nestled among a working-class neighborhood filled with row homes and brick two-story houses, five of which overlook a massive set of stone bleachers that goes for approximately 40 rows.
Tonight, that stadium, constructed in the 1920s, plays host to the eight-team, four-game Rally at Wolvarena.
Manatee will open the regular season when it faces Woodland Hills, the Wolvarena’s regular occupant, in the finale scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.
“I love it,” junior placekicker Nick Tankersley said. “I hope we get a good crowd.”
Draped in Woodland Hills’ colors of blue and white, the Wolvarena is lined with FieldTurf and a pristine set of hashmarks that can be seen from the highest seat.
Surrounded by a lush valley of trees and shrubs, Wolvarena is also located a quick two-mile drive away from a shopping plaza, an Italian restaurant and a pool hall, giving fans a chance to mingle before and after Woodland Hills’ football games.
There are two concession stands. One sits near the entrance of the stadium with a sign “Good Luck Woody High” attached to the roof. The other sits atop the skyscraping bleachers across the field from the press box. Workers stocked the higher concession stand Friday, taking a set of 20 or so stairs down from the street instead of taking the bleachers up to the top.
Smart move.
Turtle Creek Stadium was first built for Turtle Creek High School, one of three that merged to become Woodland Hills High, located about two miles from the stadium, in 1987. Woodland Hills’ mascot is the Wolverine, and a new nickname — the Wolvarena — was born.
Leon Hart, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame, graduated from Turtle Creek High in 1945, while the NFL’s Jason Taylor and Steve Breaston are among the alums of Woodland Hills, who have been quite successful.
The Wolverines have qualified for the playoffs 21 times in 23 seasons, reaching three state finals, and won their fifth Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League title last season. Part of their success can be pinned on Wolvarena, where they are 88-22 all time.
“The stadium is good. I love the turf,” Manatee senior wide receiver Quenton Bundrage said. “You get to cut better on that.”
It’s the sort of atmosphere coach Joe Kinnan craved when he scheduled this game over the spring.
And though it sat empty Friday evening, the Wolvarena’s potential seemed as endless as those steps running toward the sky.
“I’ve only seen two football fields in my life that was away from the high school,” Bundrage said, “so it’s pretty different. But you’ve still got to go out and play football.”
