High school football: Stadium upgrades add zest to 2022 season

Aug. 15—Tip-toeing across a pair of wooden pallets to stay out of the damp soil, Brian Hiscox stopped and took a deep breath as he glanced at the spectacle before him.

"This," the Berkshire athletic director said, "is going to be something, isn't it?"

To Hiscox' left, the finishing touches were being put on a set of bleachers, out in front of him was a cement truck spreading its load in precision form, and to his right, workers lined block in a newly formed walkway just north of the town square.

Great Lakes Cheese Stadium was coming to life right before his eyes.

For years, the Berkshire football team called Dr. William A. Reed Field home. But thanks to a brand new school that rests just north or the fairgrounds and right behind KSU-Geauga's campus, the district also has a new football stadium with all the frills, from artificial turf, video scoreboard and all-weather track.

The Badgers' first home game, slated for Friday, Aug. 19, has been moved to Cuyahoga Heights so Great Lakes Cheese Stadium can be completed. But come Sept. 3 when Trinity comes to town, Berkshire Badger football be on display like never before — and the fervor is building.

"Just the anticipation is amazing," said head football coach Josh DeWeese. "Opening night is going to be amplified that much more. That buzz. The atmosphere is going to be great and (the players') want to perform is going to be amplified."

A number of area football stadiums got a facelift of sorts, or are going through a facelift, this fall, including:

—Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin revamping its football stadium to build new home-side bleachers, bring in a new and larger press box and construct two buildings for concessions, restrooms and storage.

—Gilmour Academy, for the first time in school history, constructing light poles so the Lancers can play night games, and

—Mentor adding a massive video board/scoreboard, while also constructing a new ticket office, entry way and weight room facility at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium.

But the biggest project that'll be on display this fall — by far — is Great Lakes Cheese Stadium, made possible by state funds that helped build the school, a levy passed by the district voters, a $2 million donation from the Great Lakes Cheese Corp. and $200,000 donation from Pat Preston and the Preston automobile super store.

"I give a lot of credit to our superintendent, treasurer and board of education for having the goal to create something like this," Hiscox said. "To be where we are now compared to where we were last year is quite a change. We used to joke that one heavy rain in August and the field is going to be trashed the rest of the year. We don't have to worry about anything like that anymore."

Aside from football, boys and girls soccer, track and even baseball and softball (for practice purposes) will use the new turf-laden stadium.

Making the project that much more meaningful is that local companies such as Ronyak Paving and Steve Smetana — whose company is putting down the field turf — are local names and businesses.

For Berkshire alums like DeWeese and Hiscox, leaving Dr. William A. Reed Field is sentimental, but memories last forever.

"Tradition and history stay with us," DeWeese said. "We take those to the new field. (Reed Field) will be missed. It's a big part of Badger football. But we take that history with us to our new home."

Over at Gilmour, Saturday afternoon football was the tradition for years. Now the Lancers will get to experience Friday Night Lights at Weber Field for the first time. Athletic Director Sean O'Toole said the addition of lights was made possible as part of a multi-phase project to improve facilities. Among the other phases are adding a softball field and improvements to Figgie Fieldhouse, but football lights came first.

The lights will be unveiled on opening night, Aug. 19, against visiting Cleveland Rhodes

"We are very appreciative of the donations that made this happen," O'Toole said. "I'm so excited for our community. We enjoyed the ability to rent Euclid High School for one game a year so the players could experience lights. But I've never seen the kids and community as excited as they are now for Friday nights."

O'Toole pointed out that not only does the football team benefit, but also the student body and athletes in other sports such as golf, volleyball, cross country and soccer who used to miss out on watching football on Saturday afternoons because they were playing sports of their own.

"You'll see our student section grow that much more," O'Toole said.

That'll be the case at NDCL's Lion Stadium, too, if for no other reason than the seating capacity is so much larger now because of the new home bleachers. As part of the project, the home and visitor's sides were flip-flopped. The home bleachers, which now face east, easily double the previous home bleachers. Add in the concession stand, main gate, restroom facilities and aluminum patio and Lion Stadium is a sight to see more than ever.

"(Sports) is a community event," said athletic director Jim Clark. "It'll be nice to be able to provide these facilities to our community. I can't say enough about the advancements we've made here for our athletes who participate here in Lion Stadium."

Said school president Dr. Michael Bates, "Building upon the investment by the Notre Dame Schools Board of Directors to provide a new permanent restroom building, concessions, stand, spirit wear shop, ticket booth, and welcome plaza, the additional improvements to Lion Stadium include a new 1,400 seat grandstand, press box, and an alumni patio. These improvements will continue to ensure a dynamic and winning athletic program which call our community to celebrate the many successes of our student-athletes and to harness the championship legacy of Lion athletics."

Mentor's projects will continue through the season, which means fans coming to Cardinals games this fall will have different entry points than in previous years. While the weight room facility, entry plaza, ticket booth and picnic plaza will not be ready for opening night, the new — and gigantic — video board is ready for action.

"It's massive, that's for sure," said AD Jeff Cassella. "It was done by WatchFire, a scoreboard company, and they told us it's the second-largest scoreboard in the state besides Massillon's."

Cassella said the stadium improvements are part of a five-year facility improvement plan by the school district. The stadium project is slated to be completed by December.