New Richland 1 district stadium ready to host first football games

Keenan football coach Sean Gilley will be glad when his team won’t have to get on a bus for a home game.

In the past, Keenan had to take a bus for games either at Memorial or Bolden stadiums. But starting next week, the Raiders will be able to play at the new Richland One District Stadium at Keenan, located at the school.

“We want to establish a new tradition,” Gilley said. “We won’t be going to Bolden Stadium. Being on campus, it will create a new game-day routine and environment. The school district has done a great job. It puts Richland 1 with the rest of the school districts in the state that we are serious about athletics.

“We do share the facility with Eau Claire, but we get to see it every day and have watched it go up from when it was a patch of dirt.”

Gilley said the anticipation for the new stadium has been building with the alumni and former players excited to see the new facility. The coach and his players walk by the stadium each night. The Raiders won’t get the first crack to play in the stadium, as their first home game isn’t until Sept. 7 against C.A. Johnson.

C.A. Johnson will get the first chance to play on the field Thursday when it hosts Fox Creek. Unbeaten Eau Claire, which shares the stadium with Keenan, hosts Wagener-Salley the following day at the new venue.

In the next couple weeks, games also will be played at the refurbished Memorial Stadium and at Lower Richland Stadium. Bolden Stadium is going through renovations and will be ready for the 2019 season. The other stadiums’ openings were pushed back because of weather and other issues.

“We were delayed a little bit, but the final product speaks for themselves,” Richland 1 athletics director Bob Matz said. “These will be (among) the top facilities in the area, and we look forward to get games going.”

It has been a long couple months trying to get everything into place so games can be played at the stadiums, Richland 1 Facilities Director Raymond Perkins said. On Wednesday, workers were busy at Keenan putting finishing touches for this week’s games, including working on the inside of the press box and at the entrance of the stadium.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to try and provide something for the students and the community,” Perkins said. “To see something you have been working on so long come to life and be available, it is gratifying and satisfying at the same time.”

The stadium upgrades are part of nearly $40 million in athletics projects that have rolled out across the school district since 2015. After construction, all the district’s stadiums — Memorial, Keenan, Bolden and Lower Richland — will have similar features, including 5,000-seat capacity, artificial turf, video scoreboards and updated restrooms, press boxes, updated locker rooms and fencing.

Perkins said it was important for each stadium to have the same amenities.

A brick façade goes across the front of both the home and visiting sides. The turf is environmentally friendly and is made of sand ziolite and coconut fiber. The locker rooms have individual lockers for each player and will include Wi-Fi. The press boxes in the stadiums also will include Wi-Fi.

“It provides a nice spectator view, modern facilities and safer facilities,” Matz said. “And all those things are important when you are putting on a Friday night football game.”

The facilities will be used for more than football, and Matz hopes that they can host state soccer and lacrosse championships in the future. The stadium at Keenan also has a track, which will be used to host meets.

The biggest feature at the stadiums will be the new video scoreboards, which will be able to show game action. Students from the various schools will be running the video boards to give them experience with the technology. Other schools such as Chapin do the same thing for their students on game day.

“The approach we took on the video boards is not only do we want it to function on game night, but be a teaching opportunity for our students.” Perkins said. “It is an opportunity to learn a particular field, and we are setting up a class so they can learn about productions such as a sporting event.”

Richland One team schedule for this week

Thursday

Columbia vs. AC Flora (at Benedict), 7:30 p.m.

CA Johnson vs. Fox Creek (at Keenan), 7:30 p.m.

Friday

Eau Claire vs. Wagener-Salley (at Keenan), 7:30 p.m.

Keenan at White Knoll, 7:30 p.m.

Dreher vs. Gray Collegiate (at Benedict), 7:30 p.m.

Lower Richland at Westwood, 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published August 29, 2018 at 3:56 PM.