Catawba Ridge football stadium named best in SC. Here’s what makes The Pit special

Picture this: It’s Friday night and the Catawba Ridge High School football team is playing a home game.

Seconds after the Copperheads score a touchdown, fireworks light up the sky over the trees near the east side of the stadium.

“It is pretty cool when we score. The fireworks burst over the concession stand,” Catawba Ridge coach Zac Lendyak said. “It looks great and we appreciate Mr. White doing that for us. He is a community member who loves Catawba Ridge football.”

The fireworks tradition was started by Fort Mill resident Bill White, who lives nearby the school and whose contribution adds to an already electric atmosphere for one of South Carolina’s newest football stadiums.

Catawba Ridge opened in 2019 and quickly became one of the state’s top home-field advantages for Friday night football.

Catawba Ridge’s stadium — known as The Pit — was voted by readers of The State and The Herald as the best high school football stadium in South Carolina. Online voting was done over two rounds and started with 20 stadiums that were selected by a panel of sports writers and coaches from throughout the state.

Catawba Ridge was one of eight stadiums in the final round of voting. The Pit edged Camden’s Zemp Stadium for the No. 1 spot in the voting. Other S.C. stadiums that made the final cut included Clinton, Andrew Jackson, Abbeville, Gaffney, Spring Valley and River Bluff.

More than 17,000 votes were cast in the final round of voting.

The name

All good stadiums have a strong name or slogan, and Catawba Ridge is no exception. Catawba Ridge’s sports teams are known as the Copperheads, so it was only natural that the football stadium has an affiliation with snakes.

Lendyak and athletic director Rick Lewis said there wasn’t much debate on the name, coming to a “unanimous decision” the stadium would be known as The Pit. The phrase “Welcome to The Pit” is written on the bottom of the scoreboard in the east end zone.

“Obviously, with copperhead snakes and snake pit, we went with that, especially how it sits down in here with the wall,” Lendyak said. “The kids embrace it and that is what we call it on our social media sites. Florida has The Swamp and we have The Pit ...

“You are going to have a tough football game when you come in here.”

The architecture

The stadium was built by Shelco Construction and cost approximately $11 million, according to Lewis. Two-thirds of the stadium is surrounded by trees, which makes for a nice gameday setting.

The seating capacity is 5,000, with 500 or more standing-room-only spots on the concourse.

One of the signature parts of the stadium is the large wall below the concourse that overlooks the east end zone. Fans cram into that spot to get a great view of the game.

“They will stand up there and if you put a drive together going toward that end, it gives you that standing-room-only feel,” Lendyak said.

The home side is a two-tier structure with the seats on the lower level close to the Copperheads bench. With the school’s track not around the football field, there isn’t much room for sidelines on both sides, creating a more intimate setting.

“Thing is, it is really tight on the sidelines, and at times it is frustrating but you feel the crowd right on top of you,” Lendyak said. “It is kind of like a college setting where the stadium is low and the fans are on top of you. We like that aspect of it.”

The stadium has two press boxes, with a larger one on the home side for media, coaches and gameday workers.

Friday night atmosphere

The Pit’s home side is nearly packed for most games. Catawba Ridge went unbeaten at home last season and hosted the school’s first playoff game with a 63-28 win over Riverside.

“For that playoff game, it was absolutely rocking,” WRHI Radio’s Tyler Cupp said. ”You wouldn’t have guessed that was a school that has existed for four years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school in its first four years of existence with a fan base like they have. It is incredible the fanfare they have considering there are no alums. They just had their first graduating class.”

Loud music is blared throughout the stadium before the game to get the place ready to go. The team does its “Snake Walk” in which the players lock arms at the 20-yard line and walk back to the locker room together before kickoff.

Youngsters from the program’s kids club line the field for kickoff and make a tunnel in which the players run through. The players hit the field running through smoke and an inflatable Coopperhead.

The atmosphere is enhanced, Lendyk said, with the school’s state-championship-winning band and student section known as the Ridge Rowdies situated closely behind the team’s bench. The students arrive early and have themes for every game. They throw powder in the air for the opening kickoff and have a visible presence.

Senior safety Jackson Burbage remembered the crowd during last year’s game against Myers Park. The game was delayed by rain for more than an hour, and the stadium was cleared out. But once the stadium reopened, students ran through the gates and sprinted to their seats.

“We’ve got really good fans and really good crowds that help on Friday nights,” Burbage said. “They like to talk a lot of crap to the other team and refs.”

Amenities

The stadium has a pair of brick concession stands in which they sell various food items and Catawba Ridge merchandise on Friday nights.

The team’s fieldhouse includes home and visitor locker rooms, an officials locker room and training tables. The home locker room has space for 100 lockers where players hang their shoulder pads and helmets.

It also has a TV with which players and coaches can watch film. There is a table in which coaches meet after practice and games.

The locker room also includes foosball and ping pong tables that players and coaches use on a daily basis.

There also are two washing machines in an equipment room that is named after Ben Mattox, one of the team’s first managers who is now working for the University of Alabama football team.

Above the lockers are photos of former Catawba Ridge alums who went on to play college football. There are eight former Copperhead players in college, and that number is sure to grow.

“We hope we have enough to go across the locker room one day,” Lendyak said. “It is home to us, and we talked about making this place ours. The big thing about this place is, the community packs this thing out.

“Each and every week, the community, the school, the administration supports us and makes it a true home-field advantage.”

Lou Bezjak’s top five SC stadiums

The State’s prep sports coordinator Lou Bezjak has covered high school football in South Carolina for more than 20 years. Here are Bezjak’s top five stadiums that he’s visited:

• 1. River Bluff’s The Swamp

• 2. Camden’s Zemp Stadium

• 3. Spartanburg’s Viking Stadium

• 4. Hartsville’s Kelleytown Stadium

• 5. Dillon’s Memorial Stadium