September 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
For years DCHS Football Coach Steve Trapp has sought new bleachers with greater home seating capacity as well as better lighting of the football field. He may now get his wish.
During Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting, the Board of Education voted to accept bids for both projects.
“I think this will be great benefit not only for the student athlete but for the public as a whole. I would like to make a motion that we push this on to get bids to finalize this so we can get this underway,” said Sixth district board member Jason Miller. Third district member Jim Beshearse offered a second to the motion and it was approved on a voice vote.
Once bids are awarded, the new lighting could be installed by graduation next spring with the new handicapped accessible powder coated aluminum bleachers including a section of VIP seating in place by the start of the high school football season next year. The newest of the existing older sets of bleachers on the home side would be taken down and repurposed for use at the DCHS soccer field.
Coach Trapp and Assistant DCHS Principal Thomas Cagle addressed the board with the requests during a work session prior to the regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.
“I think it is something that is definitely needed, and we have talked about it for probably 10 years and for them (school board) to be on board and supportive is very promising,” Coach Trapp told WJLE Thursday.
“Seating options are not adequate for the number of people in attendance whether it be football games, graduation or other events where we have our student body going outside to sit in the stands. Upgrading our facilities will provide safer seating options, more seating capacity, and allow us to be able to include handicapped accessibility into our stadium. Currently handicapped accessibility is a platform away from the rest of the stands and student body. We want to make sure that with this new bleacher section we can include that handicapped accessibility into the bleachers allowing those fans to be part of the rest of the fan base during games, graduations, and other events we host on the field,” added Cagle who also spoke with WJLE Thursday.
“The new bleachers will have 14 handicapped accessible spots built within the bleachers on the first row. They are called companion seats so there are seats right there with them (handicapped fans) so everybody can be integrated and be part of the Friday night atmosphere,” Coach Trapp said.
Currently the total stadium seating capacity is 994 including over 600 on the home side and the rest on the visitor side of the field. With the new bleachers, the stadium home seating capacity would more than double to over 1,300 stretching almost the length of the field. There would be no bleacher seating expansion on the visitor side.
“Everything on the home side will be coming out including the handicapped ramp that has been built there and 1,300 seats will be put back in. That’s more than double the number that can sit on the home side right now. The press box will stay where it is and we will have about 70 feet of VIP chair backed seats (approximately 165 seats) underneath the press box and wrapping around the press box will be 15 rows high of bleacher seats that will stretch from the 15-yard line to the other 15-yard line,” said Coach Trapp.
“Its an aluminum bleacher set with metal bases,” said Cagle.” The difference in this set compared to what we have now is the durability and quality of the product is going to be better. We will have fully enclosed bleachers so there won’t be any more gaps between the seats where nothing or no one can fall under the bleachers,” he said.
The benches will also be powder coated providing opportunities to display school colors.
“We will probably follow the graphite and black color scheme that we have on everything else over there (other buildings near the stadium). I imagine the walkways will be black and the VIP chairs will probably be a charcoal or graphite color with the bleachers surrounding all of that so it will definitely be an upgrade to what we have now,” said Coach Trapp.
A concrete base will be put down to support the new set of bleachers with concrete pathways to the bleachers (home and visitor sides) and around the press box, field house, concession stands, and restrooms.
The existing stadium lighting will be replaced by new brighter LED lights.
“It’ll be pretty much the same set up that soccer has. I see those lights on over there (soccer field) and they are super bright and nice. Right now, we have a six-pole system and its (wired) underground to the first two poles but then everything else is overhead but for the new lighting everything (new wiring) will be underground. It will actually be a four-pole system so we will eliminate the pole currently on the 50-yard line on the visitor side to give them (fans) a clear view. The new posts should fit somewhere around the 20-yard lines back off the field to make everything a lot brighter. Currently on the playing surface there are dark spots so getting a lighting upgrade is definitely going to benefit players and fans by better illuminating everything within the stadium,” said Coach Trapp.