The new dome over Art Hass Field is inflated with more than air, it’s filled with the potential of the entire community.

Austin High School sports teams are seeing immediate results and enthusiasm of being able to practice and work out the year-round.

Austin senior Sean Baker knows exactly how much winter soccer can boost a player’s skill level and he’s thrilled to have a seasonal dome at Wescott Athletic Complex to provide a lift for future generations of Packers.

Baker, who was an all-state midfielder for the Packer soccer team that came within one win from state this past fall, said in years past he played soccer in Rochester in the winter and he could tell how much it helped him improve his game. He thinks the dome in Austin has the potential to help plenty of local soccer players make the same improvements.

There have been free voluntary soccer workouts on at the dome in Austin on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and about 25 players have signed up so far.

“It’s just as nice, if not nicer than the one in Rochester,” Baker said of the dome. “Playing in the winter is huge for younger players. Now that we have a dome in Austin and it’s free, you’ll see plenty of kids using it.”

The workouts include a warm-up, drills and scrimmages. Austin head boy soccer coach Jens Levisen said a volunteer runs the morning workouts and Levisen is ecstatic that Austin’s soccer players will have a chance to stay sharp with their game year-round.

“The facility is fantastic,” Levisen said. “I think if I were a student, I’d be saying how can I be in here as much as possible, whether it be for soccer or for other actives. There’s so many positives with it and now we have it up and running.”

In the past, Austin soccer players were forced to play in Faribault, Rochester or even the YMCA if they wanted to try and play in the winter. Now they’re able to play on the same surface that they’ll play on during the regular season and they’re able to do it without a long drive.

Levisen said that the facilities give his team a huge boost, but he’s also hoping other sports take advantage of the dome as well.

“We’re looking to see the possibilities in this,” he said. “How are we going to take advantage and grow all of our programs in Austin?”

Two sports that will directly benefit from the dome will be the Packer baseball and softball teams. In the past, those squads would have to hold early practices in the gym and sometimes their first live action outside would be their first game of the season.

Now both teams have the option of having workouts year round and there will be plenty of room to practice under the comfort of the dome when spring rolls around.

But with the cages already up, baseball coach Chris Gogolewski has said he’s happy that his players will be able to come in throughout the winter to throw and hit.

“I don’t have to worry about that transition of, ‘You need to get your arm in shape, get your legs in shape,’” he said earlier this month at the dome open house.

Past practices in school gyms have proved tight for space and offered limited practice abilities and a predictable surface for ground balls. At the dome opening, Gogolweski hit infield with a few players early Saturday and found the turf more conducive to baseball.

“There’s not a true hop coming off of the turf either, so they’ve got to read either a skip or a roll, so it really gets them thinking live baseball,” Gogolewski said.

“This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities of live practice instead of bing confined into a gym,” he added.

Gogolewski was also happy to have some certainty around unpredictable spring weather thanks to the dome.

“Weather’s no longer even a factor for us,” he said.

Along with two batting cages running along the south end zone, Gogolewski saw many possibilities for winter workouts and spring practices across the spacious football-sized dome field.

The Packer softball team already has a camp set for the week before the season starts, it will host scrimmages March 21, March 24 and a 12-team scrimmage on April 2. The Riverland Community College softball team will also host a tournament in the dome.

Austin head softball coach Al Eckmann said the Dome brings a new sense of excitement for softball.

“It’s going to be wonderful for our program,” he said. “It’s just fantastic and it’s going to offer our kids chances. We’ll have batting cages, pitching machines and balls available for anyone who wants to come in.”

—Jason Schoonover contributed to this report