Posted by LS '66 on 9/12/2009, 10:26 am, in reply to "If you build it, they will come."
67.72.98.93
By Jami Frankenberry
The Virginian-Pilot
September 10, 2009
PORTSMOUTH
The sign is no different than the many other changeable billboards dotting the front lawns of high schools throughout South Hampton Roads.
First Home Football Game
Friday Sept. 11 7 p.m
But nowhere is such a sign as significant as at Wilson High School.
A Wilson home game? On a Friday night?
“This is going to be a new era for Wilson, kicking off under the lights like everybody else in the world,” said Jack Kennedy, the school’s athletic director.
The Wilson football team hasn’t played a true Friday night “home” game – on its own campus – in decades. That changes Friday, when at 7 p.m. the Presidents are scheduled to kick off against Menchville.
Wilson (0-1) opened its season on the road last week with a loss to Lakeland.
For years, though, the Presidents were at home on the road, playing “home” games at the old Lawrence Stadium and at other Portsmouth high schools.
In recent years, Wilson played home games on-campus, but without stadium lights the Presidents played on Friday or Saturday afternoons. Crowds often were miniscule. Many fans were still working on Friday afternoons, and on Saturdays the team was competing against college football.
Construction began on Wilson’s new on-campus athletic facilities – a 5,000-seat football stadium and new baseball and softball fields – early last year. The stadium includes a brick concession stand and rest rooms, and an eight-lane track is also on the way.
The latest construction is part of a second phase of improvements to get Wilson’s athletic facilities on par with the city’s other high schools. Norcom and Churchland have had on-campus football stadiums for years.
Kennedy cautions that fans shouldn’t show up Friday expecting sparkling new digs.
Plenty of cosmetic work remains thanks to recent rainy weather. The landscaping is incomplete, the ticket booth is unfinished, and the visitors’ bleachers are likely to be inaccessible until the surrounding track is done.
Still, for Wilson’s football players, anticipation has been going up with the stadium’s new light poles, scoreboard and bleachers.
The Presidents players have dubbed it “the White House.”
“The kids have constantly been asking questions: When is it going to be ready?” Wilson coach Carlton Thomas said. “It’s built a lot of excitement in the community.
“You can sense the atmosphere changing, people talking about coming to games and getting excited.”
In recent years excitement surrounding Presidents football has been nearly as rare as a Friday night home game.
Wilson won a Group AAA Division 5 state championship in 1991, but the program has spiraled downward since.
The program has had one winning season in the past 10, and the Presidents were 0-10 in 1999, 2005 and 2006.
Wilson is coming off back-to-back 1-9 seasons.
Thomas, who played on Wilson’s 1991 state champion team, is optimistic things are turning around in his third year.
The team’s 17 points in last week’s loss were its most since 2004, and the varsity roster has 38 players – eight more than last season.
A new stadium in the school’s backyard should help.
“We get to walk out the back door and go right to our own field,” Thomas said. “These kids can’t wait for those Friday night lights.”
Jami Frankenberry, (757) 446-2376, jami.frankenberry@pilotonline.com
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