Two sets of light standards are in at the stadium. The baseball, softball and soccer fields have been hydroseeded.

Work is continuing on a large gymnasium, which will seat 2,500, and a 37-meter swimming pool.

The outline of a track, which circles the football field, can be seen from the second floor of the gym.

Six tennis courts will soon join the other facilities.

Yes, American Canyon High School, located at 3000 Newell Drive in south Napa County, east of Highway 29, is coming to life.

A year from now, American Canyon High will be up and running with freshmen and sophomores attending classes. The Wolves will be the school mascot, with boys and girls participating in junior varsity sports. They will be joining the Solano County Athletic Conference, a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division III league.

“You’ve got a community that is very excited about having their own high school finally after all these years and is excited about having an athletic program — and wants a top-class athletic program,” said Dave Shipp, Vintage’s athletic director.

“You’re the only show in town.”

Shipp is doing all he can to assist Mark Brewer, American Canyon’s principal who has a coaching background, with getting the Wolves’ athletic department off the ground. Shipp said his help has included getting Brewer familiar with the section and eligibility issues, working with sporting good vendors, and the budgets and costs associated with prep athletics.

Brewer said there is tremendous community spirit in anticipation of the new school opening next year.

“I’m amazed at the facility itself,” he said. “I’m amazed at the commitment and the dedication of the parents and the people of this community, including people that don’t even have kids — they’re helping and promoting the school and raising money and donating, and their kids are gone already. They’re so excited to have a high school in this town.

“To me, that’s a wonderful community thing. That’s what really makes this community stand apart. They have real tight community values and really love their town.”

Equipment and uniforms will be ordered next spring for the Wolves. An official athletic logo has already been designed, with black and gold as the primary school colors with white and emerald green as accents.

“It’s an original logo, just for our school,” Brewer said.

When work is finally completed, American Canyon High will have just about everything — including an all-weather track and synthetic playing field for football, two gym floors, and a weight room. The school will open on Aug. 17, 2010 with an enrollment of 565 to 600 students. American Canyon High, located on a 49.5-acre site, is being built for 2,200 students at four grade levels.

“The facility is phenomenal,” said Shipp. “It’s like going to Disneyland — everything is there. You can have teams on both courts and they won’t disrupt each other at all.

“You don’t have to go all over the world to find your athletic teams — they’re all in one area.”

Athletics will be a major component of the school, with American Canyon planning to offer the same sports as Napa and Vintage. The 2011-12 school year will see the Wolves playing at the varsity level.

“We’ll try to run all of them right out of the gate at the JV level, depending on numbers,” said Brewer. “If I don’t have enough for water polo, then we might run it as a club sport for the first year, until we get enough athletes that want to do it.”

If there’s a need, Brewer will also look into offering programs just for freshmen teams.

“I don’t want to turn any kids away,” he said.

Brewer, 44, coached high school sports for nine years in Colorado before going into administration, where he has worked as a principal and vice principal. He has coached baseball, football, softball, girls tennis and girls golf.

“I loved it. But when I went into administration in Colorado, I could no longer coach,” he said.

Brewer plans to hire JV coaches only for the 2010-11 school year. After the Napa Valley Unified School District transfer process is complete, Brewer will then have the opportunity to advertise out of district for varsity head-coaching openings for the following year. But he also said those JV coaches, if they are interested, can apply for varsity jobs.

“I’ll have more of an ability to look at a broader group of people, because hopefully at that point I’ll have a (full-time teaching) job that I can tie to it,” said Brewer, who is working out of the NVUSD’s administrative offices while the school is being built.

Brewer, a graduate of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo who got his master’s at the University of Colorado, is hopeful that a vice principal who is hired after the first of the year can take on some additional duties related to athletic administration and working with the coaching staff.

One of the key hires, he said, will be a head football coach. Brewer has been consulting with Ed Lombardi of Sheldon-Elk Grove, one of the all-time winningest coaches in the Sac-Joaquin Section. 

Lombardi has over 200 wins in a 33-year coaching career, with stops at Lassen-Susanville, Elk Grove, Clovis West-Fresno and Sheldon.

Brewer played football for Lombardi at Lassen in the 1980s.

“He’s a very positive influence as a coach and a person,” said Brewer, adding that Lombardi is not a candidate for the American Canyon job. “He said he’ll come over here and watch our JV team play next year. He’s a good guy.

“He’s a good resource, because he’s very networked around the state and knows a lot and has trained a lot of assistant coaches. I’ve talked to him a little bit about that.”

The size of American Canyon’s gym and the seating capacity lends itself to possibly hosting championship events on a section level, said Brewer.

“That would be our hope,” he said. “That would be an added benefit and I’d certainly like to do that, because I think that’s good exposure for the community and the school.”