Crown jewel: New video boards add endless possibilities to Arlin Field, Pete Henry Gym
MANSFIELD — When Mansfield City Schools Superintendent took his post in 2019, he had four simple goals.
1. How can he and Mansfield City Schools better serve their students?
2. How can he and Mansfield City Schools better serve their student-athletes?
3. How can he and Mansfield City Schools better serve the Mansfield community?
4. And finally, how can he take all three of those groups and unite them so that when people think of Mansfield City Schools, they also think about the city in its entirety?
A major step toward those goals was taken on Friday when a new video scoreboard was fired up at Arlin Field unleashing a plethora of possibilities inside and outside of athletics that would benefit the students, student-athletes and the Mansfield community.
"We felt we could do more things," Jefferson said. "We are into a theme of being one, united community. The schools and the community should be one. When people look at the schools, they should see the city and when they look at the city, they should look at the schools with pride. We should be tied together."
The scoreboard at Arlin Field cost $244,035 featuring a 25x20 video screen and a separate scoreboard attached to the bottom and has endless capabilities. The video board portion of the scoreboard can do instant replays, live streams of the game itself, player profiles, show band performances at halftime and have animations during touchdowns and important situations. And it will all be tied into a Danley sound system that will rock Arlin Field.
"We fired up the scoreboard at Arlin Field on Friday and the software worked perfectly," Mansfield City Schools Facility Manager Robert Booth said. "The computer is up in the press box and the sound system is all tied in. Everything is wireless. All we are waiting for is the header for the top that will read 'Home of the Tygers'. That sound system will vibrate you even with how big that stadium is. It will be like sitting in a movie theater. It is going to be awesome."
Videoboard paid for by a permanent improvement fund
The scoreboard didn't come cheap, but it didn't cost the school or the taxpayers any extra money out of their pockets.
"When we first got quotes, they were a little bit heftier than we had expected," Mansfield City Schools Treasurer Tacy Courtright said. "We did some research in 2020 where we refunded the high school and the bond and refinanced those at a much lower interest rate and there was residual leftover money in the bond fund."
Courtright went to work right away with the Richland County Auditor asking to have the bond fund money moved over to a permanent improvement fund so Mansfield City Schools could make the purchase of the video scoreboard at Arlin Field. There was approximately $250,000 in the bond fund which was enough to cover the cost of the Arlin Field scoreboard.
"I thought it was great to reinvest it into our community because the people are the ones who voted for our new high school originally," Courtright said. "We just moved that money and repurposed the money we already had in hand to make the scoreboard purchase which will in turn provide opportunities for our community members to enjoy it."
In 2020, Arlin Field underwent a facelift at a combined $1.6 million that included safety renovations and new LED lighting.
"With all that and a new video board, Arlin Field is going to look really good," Courtright said.
Mansfield City School Students to assist in running of video board
With the newest technology, the video board is one of a kind in the area and to Jefferson.
"There are so many different options that we can do that we are going to have to take it week by week because we have never had anything like this before," Jefferson said. "We will be learning about everything it can do over the next several weeks."
But, the video board duties on Friday nights will be in great hands. Mansfield City School teachers in the career and technology program will be assisting students who will be in charge of running the video board during home football games. So, it will also be a huge teaching tool for those students looking to go into a career that involves digital media.
Again, a win-win-win for students, student-athletes and the community.
"This will prepare those students so they can go into the TV and radio world after high school," Jefferson said. "When they get to college, they will already know things that other entry-level students didn't learn at their high schools. They will learn how the TV, radio and multi-media stations operate with first-hand experience of running our video board on Friday nights. This is a tremendous gift for our students, our athletic programs and our community."
Arlin Field and Pete Henry Gymnasium will have grand plans
And Jefferson didn't stop with just Arlin Field. He took one look at the scoreboard in Pete Henry Gymnasium and knew he wanted something similar.
So, the installation of a new video scoreboard has been underway and is nearing completion. It will provide a new experience for the volleyball, wrestling and boys and girls basketball programs. The annual JC Gorman Wrestling Invite will be using the video board in many different ways.
"We can really take that video board and really think outside of the box," Jefferson said. "It allows us to think differently about how we can use it to service the community during athletic off nights. Our interactive media students and instructors can have a field day with this new technology and how they can use it. The sky really is the limit."
The Pete Henry scoreboard project was $164,250 and will feature a new center-hung four-way scoreboard, a new video board on the south end of the gym that measures 18x12 and a new scoreboard along with it. There will also be scoreboards in the locker rooms so teams can keep an eye on the clock at halftime and a Danley sound system similar to the one at Arlin Field. There will also be a new 24-foot scorer's table with a video board across the front.
"We obviously didn't have enough money to purchase both scoreboards," Courtright said. "So, we went out and looked for sponsorships and those helped us pay for the scoreboard in Pete Henry Gymnasium. Over the next five years, local companies will make payments to us and have their name on the scoreboard and in turn, pay for the board itself. The scorer's table was funded internally and was much less of an expenditure that we could work into our budget."
When the funding was secured and initial plans were all taken care of, Jefferson and his team went to work brainstorming different ideas in ways to use the videoboard to benefit not only Tyger athletes, but members of the community as well. Summer movie nights at the stadium, music concerts and festivals held inside Arlin Field, Fourth of July events, literally anything that will continue to make Arlin Field the crown jewel of Mansfield while servicing multiple different groups including those athletes, students and community members.
"We decided to look even bigger," Jefferson said. "We took a look inside Pete Henry Gymnasium and saw a scoreboard that had been there since the school was built. We needed to address that for our volleyball, wrestling, boys and girls basketball teams and our graduation ceremonies. We did a lot of research and looked at a number of different companies and got to work."
Video boards could create a revenue stream for Mansfield City Schools and the community
With limitless possibilities, Mansfield City Schools could create a new revenue stream for both the school and the community. Holding concerts and festivals will bring more people to the city injecting money into the local economy. Signing food vendors and family-friendly entertainment will add money into the school to do more things for its students.
"We would love to do something similar to what they do down in the brickyard with a more family-friendly atmosphere," Courtright said. "We would love to have events in the summer that can put our great facilities to use and provide our community with family opportunities."
When looking at the new video boards on a football front, it puts Arlin Field near the top of the best stadiums in Ohio. With five regular-season home games and the opportunity to host two playoff games, it brings excitement to the football program.
It also opens up the opportunity for Arlin Field to continue to host high-profile playoff games. When playoffs reach the regional semifinal level, neutral sites with artificial turf are used and Arlin Field has been the host of some of the best playoff games in the last decade. Last year, It hosted the Division I state semifinal game between St. Edward and Gahanna and the year before, it was St. Ed's and Upper Arlington.
"Ultimately, and I would love to have a conversation with the Ohio High School Athletic Association, we want to host a state championship game," Jefferson said. "Geographically, we sit at the heart of the state and I am not taking anything away from where the games are played now, but we would love to prove ourselves worthy of hosting. There is still a lot of work we have to do, but there is nothing like watching a football game at Arlin Field. We can hold nearly 12,000 fans and you are right on the field. That is my dream."
Currently, all state championship football games are held at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. To bring a state championship game to Arlin Field would bring a boost to the local economy and put Mansfield on the map.
But for the present and near future, the students and student-athletes at Mansfield City Schools will enjoy some state-of-the-art improvements to their athletic facilities and the community will be given plenty of family entertainment opportunities to enjoy.
"It is all about servicing our students, student-athletes and our community," Jefferson said. "We want them to come to Arlin Field and Pete Henry Gymnasium and enjoy a one-of-a-kind experience they can't get anywhere else. We want going to an athletic event to feel like going to a carnival. It should be a fun, family event where you see great games with great teams and competition. We want to make that for our community."
After Jefferson accepted a new 5-year contract in Sept. of 2022, as he continues to reach for those four simple goals, Arlin Field, Pete Henry Gymnasium and Mansfield City Schools will soon become the crown jewels of the city.
jfurr@gannett.com
740-244-9934
Twitter: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield City School's Arlin Field and Pete Henry Gymnasium received new video boards
