Four days before Allen was to play for its first state football championship in December, an ice storm hit the Dallas area. The Allen school district closed its schools that day, but football practice went on as scheduled.

With ice covering their outdoor practice field, Allen football players simply walked inside their 71,600-square-foot indoor practice facility to prepare for the biggest game in school history.

"During the football season, we don't have to miss a practice," Allen coach Tom Westerberg said.

That's one reason indoor training facilities are becoming more common on high school campuses. And, aside from similar uses, the high school facilities are nothing like the Cowboys' indoor practice facility that was demolished by strong winds last weekend.

The destruction of the facility at Valley Ranch led to 12 injuries, including a scouting assistant's permanent paralysis from the waist down. But unlike the high school facilities that have conventional roofing, the Cowboys' facility had a steel-framed roof covered with fabric.

"I don't think ours could've been approved if it was built that way," Hebron football coach Brian Brazil said of the facility on his campus. "Ours is a permanent structure."

The Cowboys' facility was a tension-supported structure that included a full-size football field. It cost nearly $2 million. In contrast, the facilities built last year on the campuses of Grand Prairie and South Grand Prairie each cost about $5 million. The Allen ISD Activity Center came at a similar cost in 1999, when the training facilities were extremely rare at high schools.

Training facilities are now on the campuses of nearly three dozen area schools. They usually include no more than half a football field and are used for everything from physical education classes to ROTC training. They are especially useful for baseball, softball and soccer teams that practice during the icy grips of winter.

"Our football team probably uses the facility less than anybody else," said Coppell athletic director John Crawford. "It's very much a multipurpose facility."

The same is true at the other training facilities that can be found in one-high school cities such as Southlake, Lancaster and Forney, and also at schools in some larger districts such as Plano, McKinney, Frisco and Lewisville. The facilities are also on the campuses of some smaller schools, such as 3A Celina and Prosper. Another is being built at 3A Princeton.

Schools in some larger districts such as Dallas and Garland don't have them. The Mesquite ISD doesn't have them, either, and that leads to some scrambling when thunderstorms rumble through the Dallas area in the fall. If the grass fields at the high schools are too soaked for practice, the football teams at Mesquite, North Mesquite, West Mesquite, Horn and Poteet must split time at the school district's two stadiums that have artificial turf.

"And if we get any lightning," said Mesquite ISD athletic director Steve Bragg, "we're just out of luck."

Not so at Allen, where an air-conditioned facility holds half a football field, Allen's athletic offices and a weight room that can accommodate more than 200 athletes at once. It's one of the biggest, and nicest, facilities in the area.

But having any kind of facility is the important part. When asked whether his school had one, Cedar Hill football coach Joey McGuire's response was what you hear from many coaches and athletic directors:

"We don't have one, but I wish we did."