Nest Builders seeking money for bleachers

By Ed Runyan

The additional seating areas would add 1,256 seats to the home side of the field.

CANFIELD — Community volunteers and school officials say one last piece is needed to complete the Canfield sports/community complex behind the high school — two “wings” of additional bleacher seating on the home side of the field.

Raising $200,000 to purchase the materials by June 1 is critical because the price to purchase the steel for the job will rise 50 percent after that, said Jim Rousher, president of the Canfield Nest Builders, a nonprofit community group.

“If we don’t do it now, it probably will not happen,” said Rousher, who works in the steel transportation industry and has watched the price of steel skyrocket recently.

The Nest Builders and representatives from the city, Canfield Township, school board, high school band and athletics department held a news conference at the stadium Thursday to explain to the public the need for donations for the project.

“We can’t promise you a seat until you give us a hand,” quipped Dante Zambrini, Canfield superintendent of the lack of seating in the state-of-the art facility.

The stadium now features an all-weather track, new band shell, new visitor’s side seating and ProGrass field turf. The community has raised the money for improvements made over the past three years. In all, around $1.5 million has been spent.

But seating capacity is the one exception. The new visitor seating holds around 2,000 fans. The recently renovated home bleachers hold around 1,300 — giving the stadium a seating capacity of 3,300.

That is frequently not enough, causing a great many fans to stand along the edges of the stadium, Zambrini said.

The two “wings” of seating would add 1,256 seats, including 56 handicapped seats.

The all-weather football surface, which cost around $1 million, has been an enormous benefit to a variety of sports and other activities at the school, officials said.

While other schools were struggling to play football and soccer on their home fields because of poor field conditions, Canfield was able to play every high school varsity, junior varsity, freshman, middle school and Little Cardinal home game at the stadium, plus every soccer game, said Greg Cooper, Canfield’s athletic director.

The stadium’s field turf is always ready to play on, even in wet weather. It is available for baseball teams to use in the spring and for high school gym classes to use during the school day, Cooper said.

“We don’t have to deal with mud — ever,” he said.

The stadium is also being used by Youngstown Christian School for its football games, and the new Penn-Ohio Tigers minor league professional football team will play its games there.

For band members, the new band shell and field turf helps the band to reduce wear and tear on uniforms, said Jim Vollenik, Canfield band director.

The stadium will make a great venue for additional musical entertainment, such as concerts, Vollenik said, and additional seating will make such shows more feasible.

The current stadium would make an ideal place to hold high school football playoff games, Cooper noted, but the minimum seating capacity at playoff games is 4,000.

To make a donation or for more information, call Mark Graham at (330) 533-3341, Jim Rousher at (330) 538-2531 or Greg Cooper at 330-5341 Ext. 2.

runyan@vindy.com