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New video board is up, ready to go for first Fitch Falcons' football game
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
A new video board is ready for the Austintown Fitch Falcons football team’s season opener next week.
The project was done in conjunction with building new tennis courts at Austintown Township Park, 6000 Kirk Road, and replacing the existing tennis courts by Greenwood Chevrolet Austintown Falcon Stadium into handicap parking spots.
The work “hasn’t interrupted anything that we’ve been doing,” said Rob Conklin, Austintown schools athletic director. “We had to address a couple tennis practices to [go] out at the township park, but other than that, everything has been fine.”
The Fitch girls’ tennis team won’t get the opportunity to play on the new courts, but the boy’s team, which plays in the spring time, will play there. The teams have been practicing at the Fitch courts and playing matches at Volney Rogers.
The video board will start out slowly with some of its features, such as video replay capabilities as students from Austintown Community Television, ACTV, learn the system. “We’re going to be taking some small steps,” Conklin said. That includes “starting lineups for our team, that kind of thing. I think [fans] will get a kick out of that.”
It is 13 feet high and the video-board section is 10 feet high and 17 feet wide.
Tom Ventresco, the district’s technology coordinator, said ACTV students have been getting training on the system. Students will operate the system – called Show Control, which is used in Major League stadium venues – and operate cameras on the sideline for video replays and on-field presentations. Ventresco said 47 events are scheduled in the fall at the field.
The construction of two additional tennis courts at the township park is progressing as well. The paving will be done by the end of next week and then a 30-day curing period is needed before the top coat and lines can be painted. Mal Culp, Austintown schools’ supervisor of facilities and operations, said he expects the full project to be complete by Oct. 1.
“After we got the bid process complete, it’s been going like clockwork,” Culp said.
Austintown Township trustees approved, on recommendation of the Austintown school district, R.T. Vernal Paving and Excavating Inc. of North Lima for the $149,662 tennis-court construction in the township park.
The school district is paying the cost to build the courts while the township will pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the courts to be used by the Austintown tennis teams.
The school board had authorized Falcon Forward a loan of up to $150,000 for the new video board, which it has paid back through sponsorships it sold on the board. The board features spots for advertisers around its edges.
Main sponsors of the board are the Sweeney Auto Group and Lane LifeTrans. There will also be sponsors on the back of the board to be seen by motorists driving onto the school campus.