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How old are the schools/football stadiums in your district?

NND Sports Fan

VaPreps Honorable Mention
Aug 1, 2002
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I posted the following on the Class 1 Board about 21 hours ago and have yet to get a response, so I thought I'd try here!

In the NND here are my best guesses:
Lancaster around '73 or '74. Football stadium I believe opened in 1977. They are getting a new school, etc in two years.
Westmoreland's new school opened in 2022. But, they just started playing football on campus this year.
Northumberland was built around the mid-2000s I believe. Might require some help here.
Portions of Rappahannock date back to 1963. They started playing football at their current stadium in 1977 or 1978. New lights were installed around 20 or so years ago.
Essex's school site dates back to 1971 but it underwent a significant renovation around 2010 and it now looks nothing like the original. Still two-stories. The football stadium, which has undergone significant renovations the past 5 years (new lights, new scoreboard, new home bleachers, press box), opened in 1976.
Colonial Beach??? I'm guessing the school dates back to the 60s or early 70s? No idea about the football stadium but new home bleachers and a new press box were installed in time for this season.
Only other local school I'm fairly knowledgeable about is King and Queen Central. They started playing football at the present location in 1974. It was reconfigured sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s with modern lights and home and visitors seating. A new lighting system was installed last year. The school I believe dates back to the 1960s (possibly earlier) and underwent renovations in the 1990s.
As far as other Tidewater schools are concerned, I do know that Middlesex and King William are on their second stadiums. I believe Charles City is also as they once played their home games at the county's parks and recreation facility. West Point's stadium is in the general area of the original which was located behind where the home bleachers stand now. the original ran east-west while the present one is south-north. I believe Mathews plays at its original stadium. A new, digital scoreboard was installed there some years ago.
Any corrections would be appreciated
 
King William opened their current stadium in 2008. My memory of KW football goes back to 1985. I'm not sure if they had another stadium prior to their last one or if its only been 2 stadiums.
 
Mitchell Stadium where Graham plays was built in 1936. Little league, middle school, high school, & college teams from Bluefield , WV & Bluefield VA play here. If I’m not mistaken, Graham is the only high school team that plays their home games in another state.

 
We are pretty lucky here in Augusta County. Three of our schools were built in the early 60s and the other two in the early 70s, although there have been remodeling and addition touches since then. All five of them use the same football field they always have to the best of my recollection.

You could nitpick any of the five and find little annoyances with them but overall they are all OK. Some have better parking and access situations than others (I would give Fort Defiance and Stuarts Draft the highest mark in that category), and some might have better bathrooms and concession stands than others. I know that Riverheads was the first to install a play clock and may still be the only county school that has one..........not sure about that detail.

As for Buffalo Gap and Wilson, the visiting stands at Wilson sit back farther from the field than they do at some other schools, whereas at the Gap, the visiting stands are separated into two sections, which means the visitors cannot have a cohesive rooting section and it is not possible for any visiting fans to sit at the 50 yard line. The reason for that is because the press box is on the visiting side and sits right between those sets of visiting bleachers.

I cannot recall ever seeing another school with the press box on the visiting side and I suspect that even the Bison fans don't like that. But it has been that way as long as I can remember so I am sure they will not be changing it any time soon.

Overall we have nice facilities and when any two are playing one another, it is no more than half an hour travel time involved for most fans. Of course in recent years we have added the two city schools, Staunton and Waynesboro, in to the mix, which makes for an even better district travel-wise.

That will all change next year when Alleghany and Rockbridge County come into our district. We will talk about that when the time comes.

This has nothing to do with football but as of this current school year, all five of our county schools now have their own middle school next door to the high school, and in the case of the brand new Riverheads and Buffalo Gap Middle Schools, they are actually attached to the high school. I am sure all parents enjoy that kind of convenience for taking their kids to the various activities.
 
Union high School was completed and opened in January 2014.

The football stadium/park(Bullitt Park)was built in 1935. The field itself predates that.

It's been continuously used by the Big Stone Gap Buccaneers until 1958 when they consolidated wth East Stone Gap to form Powell Valley HS. It was used by PV from 1959 until 2010 when PV consolidated wth Appalachia HS to form Union.
 
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