South Allegheny to christen new stadium
Anticipation is mounting and excitement levels are through the roof for South Allegheny’s home opener vs. Class 3A No. 5 Freeport on Friday — and not just because it’s a battle of 1-0 teams.
Friday’s game at 7 p.m. will mark the first football game played at the Gladiators’ brand-new multi-million dollar stadium, right in the heart of South Allegheny’s campus. The Gladiators had played their home games at Glassport Memorial Stadium since 1950, but the stadium closed its doors for good last fall due to crumbling infrastructure.
Although the former players who helped make Glassport Stadium famous are sad to see it go, everyone agreed that it was time for something new. So with the guidance and vision of assistant superintendent David McDonald and the South Allegheny school board, the district approved a $7.4 million plan to renovate the elementary school and construct a new stadium on campus.
“When you’re planning something like this, you want to dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘T’s, so we’re hoping we pull off a great weekend and celebrate this great complex for everybody that’s been involved,” McDonald said. “We feel like we’re going to have over 3,000 people there on Friday night. … We’re going to go standingroom only.”
Known as Gladiators Stadium, the state-of-the-art facility features a 95,650-square-foot synthetic turf field, a four-pole Musco Sportsfield lighting system, an ADA parking area and entrance and a giant electronic scoreboard with a video display. There is also a 4,500square-foot entrance building with ticketing areas, restrooms and a concession stand, and about 2,000 seats on the home side with about 500 more in the visiting grandstand.
It might not be the largest football stadium in the area, but it is certainly one of the most accommodating and breathtaking venues the WPIAL has to offer.
“I think our facility puts us in the top five facilities in the WPIAL, and that’s on every level,” McDonald said. “We want the WPIAL to look at us as a viable playoff site. We’ve got outstanding parking on campus. We’ve got everything you could want from a new complex to host a first-class event.”
The electronic scoreboard, which spans 22 feet by 40 feet, is more than just a jumbo-sized
video board to display the score and key replays. It is also an educational tool for South Allegheny’s students, specifically those who are taking television production as a class. Students from that class will be in charge of operating the scoreboard and producing hype videos and graphics for the team and advertisements to be displayed during games.
“It’s real project-based learning for our students, so it’s not just a sports complex,” McDonald said. “It really ties into what we’re trying to do in our building.”
With the school board’s blessing, McDonald said there weren’t many hoops he had to jump through in order to secure the funding for the project. Surprisingly, the entire process took only about two years from the initial planning stages to the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The stadium first opened its doors for the school’s graduation ceremony last spring, and it has also hosted a pair of soccer games this week to get ready for Friday’s grand opening. South Allegheny expects a who’swho of former players, alumni and prominent community members to attend Friday’s game, which will include about two hours of pregame festivities.
And for those Gladiators faithful who still remember the school’s only WPIAL championship team from 1977, one special guest on Friday might bring back some fond memories.
“I’m excited about it,” said former star running back Darnel Richardson, the 1977 WPIAL Class 2A Player of the Year and now the cornerbacks coach Duquesne. “It’s about time it happened.”
The Dukes play at nearby Youngstown State on Saturday, which will allow Richardson to attend Friday night’s grand opening and soak it all in.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys coming back [on Friday], and I’ll be looking forward to seeing them again,” Richardson said. “Big matchup real early. Should be a good game.”
The man who broke Richardson’s career rushing record in the mid-1990s, Jon Pons, won’t be able to make it on Friday. That’s because his son, Jackson, is a star receiver at Norwin, which also plays at 7 p.m. Friday. But Pons knows how much excitement the new stadium is generating throughout the community, and he hopes it can help be the catalyst for the Gladiators to make a second consecutive playoff appearance.
“Building that success around this beautiful facility and all these resources for the kids, I think it’s just the start of something great there,” Pons said. “You hope they could bless it with a win.”
Having the stadium right on the school’s campus is a game-changer for all of the school’s athletic programs, but it’s more than that. The stadium will be used as a hub for all of the communities South Allegheny serves, giving everyone in town a place to gather for movie nights, concerts and more.
Following Friday night’s festivities, there will be another soccer game at the stadium on Saturday afternoon, followed by a community movie night with a 6:30 p.m. showing of “The Sandlot.”
“Getting the community involved in the process, I think that’s what’s going to keep people coming back,” said athletic director Mike Crown. “Any time we can tie athletics and academics together, that’s what we’re going to try to do. And then through the process, changing that culture where we get a good number of people coming to our games and building up our fan base.”
And maybe, just maybe by Sunday morning, McDonald, Crown and everybody else involved with the multi-year project will finally be able to take a deep breath and relax.
“[We’re excited] for the school board members who have made it happen and the community members who got behind the idea. But most importantly for our kids and our alumni who are coming back for the weekend to see something I think a lot of people never believed would happen,” McDonald said. “We’re really excited about it but can’t wait until Sunday morning, either.”