How flashing lights are adding ‘one more element of excitement’ to Oklahoma HS football

There are a lot of things that make a high school football game interesting and unique.

The bands.

The student sections.

The traditions.

But visit one of several stadiums in the Oklahoma City metro area this year, and you’ll notice a new thing that is trending — the Friday night lights are changing. Literally.

The 2023 Oklahoma high school football season is in full swing, and several schools have added new lights to their stadiums that flash on and off during introductions and to celebrate big plays and victories. Some are even synched to music. The gameday experience is getting more modern at the high school level, and the flashing lights are evidence of that.

“I think it adds to the enjoyment of fans and players and just makes it more of a collegiate or professional atmosphere at a high school game,” said Jake Corbin, who coaches at Choctaw, which is in its first year with the new lights. “I think it just adds one more element of excitement to a Friday night contest.”

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Choctaw, Edmond Memorial, Norman, Noble and Tuttle are among the metro schools that have the new lights.

Edmond Memorial has had them the longest out of those, and it’s the Bulldogs’ fourth year with them.

As the only Edmond program with the fancy lights, the schools without them are a little bit envious of the Bulldogs.

“I think it’s fun when it happens and the lights flash and people go, ‘Oh, that was really neat,’” Edmond Schools athletic director Mike Nunley said. “But we don’t have a big demand for it. People aren’t like, ‘Flash the lights.’ But I think it’s like many things at events that we put on now. It’s very much about creating an environment.

“People are becoming more accustomed to — and I’m not being critical — but the Oklahoma fan, if you want to call it that, is now subjected to what the NBA does with the Thunder and so when they go to events, whether it be high school or college, they ask about the same atmosphere.”

Harve Collins Stadium, which sits on Norman’s campus but is also the home venue of Norman North, has had the new lights for a couple years.

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Norman Public Schools athletic director TD O’Hara said they’ve definitely made games more enjoyable.

“One of the things that we’ve tried to work on and identify is trying to enhance or improve our gameday atmosphere and environment for not only our players but also our spectators and fans who attend those games,” O’Hara said. “We’ve seen these lights have a positive impact on everyone that’s involved as far as that piece goes.”

The lights at Harve Collins Stadium have an aspect to them that a lot of other schools don’t have.

“We’re actually fortunate enough to where not only do we have the flashing lights, we have the colored lights,” O’Hara said. “So, we’re able to do some stuff pregame wise and also during our national anthem. We can have our lights be red, white and blue.”

Noble is in the process of adding new lights.

The gameday atmosphere at the school was already special. The Bears have a great stadium and do it big on Fridays, with a unique introduction and smoke when they run onto the field.

Noble plans on having the new lights fully implemented this season.

“The ones that we have, the warranty, the life of them were just about up anyways, so when we started looking, that’s just kind of the way of the world today,” Noble athletic director Tyler Solomon said.

Noble plans to use the lights in a bunch of ways.

“It can either synch to music or we can set up programs to where essentially it will,” Solomon said. “But I know the band is excited, too. They’re going to work, do a lot of their shows and to be able to use the lights for their shows, too.”

No matter how a school uses them, the flashing lights are an interesting thing for fans.

There’s already a lot to love about high school football games, and the lights are a trend fans can look for in the future.

“It’s just another piece to creating a little bit of a gameday environment,” Nunley said.

Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at hhart@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @nicksardis. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Flashing lights adding flare to Oklahoma high school football games