Lordstown’s new stadium celebrated

December 12, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

By Dan Hiner

Several Lordstown High School sports have a new home as of Monday.

Members of the Lordstown community and school district celebrated the opening of the Lordstown Veterans Memorial Stadium at Lordstown High School.

The new $1.3 million stadium will house an all-weather facility for track and field teams to practice and host events. The boys and girls soccer teams also will also use the stadium.

Prior to the construction of the complex, the soccer teams used an open field behind the high school.

“They had a field in the back of our high school,” Lordstown Superintendent Terry Armstrong said. “We’d convert it or line it, the drainage wasn’t all that good back there.

“We’d line it, put some temporary fence around it. It worked for what we needed, but our soccer programs have really taken off and grown,” Armstrong said. “We’re just real excited for them to have their own facility and they’re very excited about it as well.”

The high school received $1 million through a negotiated tax incentive donation agreement with the Lordstown Energy Center.

Armstrong said another $1 million was raised by the school and no tax payer money was used on the project. He said the additional money from the school was used to improve drainage, stands and install new grass.

Armstrong said the Lordstown Energy Center wanted the name to honor veterans rather than the company.

Armstrong said the deal with the Lordstown Energy Center was crucial to the project because the school district lost money from the state and couldn’t raise the money itself.

Brian Rust, Lordstown athletic director, said Lordstown tried to build an updated facility for years but never had the funding.

“We go track, cross country and indoor track, it’s basically our bread and butter,” Rust said. “There had been plans in the past when the district had more money.

“They drafted [plans] but then things went bad. We had plans for a track years ago. It was always a dream to get a track, just the monetary compensation was never there.”

Rust is also the coach of the junior high track team. He said Armstrong met with coaches within the program and reached out to retired coaches to see what the new complex needed.

“We were all brought in for meetings,” Rust said. “There were a couple committee meetings last year to go over what we wanted — from a wide range from students to coaches.”

The track and field program will host its first event on March 27 in a five-team meet. Lordstown, Badger, Bloomfield, Newbury and South Range will compete at the new facility.

Rust said the goal is to hold major running events, but the stadium isn’t capable of hosting just yet.

Lordstown plans to start raising money for a second phase of the project in the beginning of January.

The second phase includes the installation of a scoreboard, concession stands and lighting. The money would pay for track equipment such as hurdles.

Rust said the school didn’t need much equipment in the past, but the school needs the proper tools if they want to host larger meets.

Rust said Armstrong plans to have the second phase completed within the next two years.