U-CF getting new scoreboards thanks to donation

EAST MARLBOROUGH » There will be new state-ofthe-art LED scoreboards at Unionville High School’s varsity baseball and softball fields this year, thanks to a donation by the Unionville Recreation Association.

Unionville-Chadds Ford school directors have accepted a $46,570 donation from URA, which uses many of the district’s fields.

The new scoreboards are specific to baseball and softball and will be the same size as the existing ones and will be located where the current ones are – outside the left field fence at the baseball field and just outside the centerfield fence for softball.

“This is a big donation,” said John Sanville, superintendent of the Unionville Chadds Ford School District.

While the existing scoreboards do not have sponsorships, the new scoreboards have room for three advertisements at the bottom. The revenue that will be sold from the three sponsorships will come back to the school district and allocated for sports programs. The booster clubs will help to sell the ads, but the district does not have a solid advertising policy. Sanville said one will be hammered out for the 2018-19 school year.

“If we have an opportunity for revenue, we shouldn’t pass it up,” said Rick Hostetler, supervisor of buildings and grounds.

School Director Jeff Hellrung said it makes sense to install the scoreboard now and to resolve the sponsorship issue next year.

The board considered the possibility of either leaving the advertising spots empty for now, or filling them with a temporary advertisement thanking the URA for its donation.

There will be an Indian mascot logo on the scoreboard, but the Indian mascot has generated controversy in the past few

months. A student-run group has held meetings about banishing the Indian mascot and a community discussion on the topic will take place later in the year. School officials said the Indian mascot can easily be removed from the scoreboard if the decision is made to switch to a new mascot.

The board agreed to accept the donation, and will make it official at the Jan. 26 meeting.

SUBMITTED PHOTO This is what the new Unionville-Chadds Ford baseball and softball scoreboard will look like.