The DeKalb County High School Tiger Football season is fast approaching and fans will see some new technology this year with the completion of the team’s new Jumbotron scoreboard at Dr. John L. Vanhooser Memorial Stadium. The 16 foot by 10 foot video board was recently added to the field’s updated scoreboard and will feature video ads, as well as highlights.
“The video board cost over $100,000 and was funded by the community and local businesses,” Tiger Football Head Coach Steve Trapp explained. “It was not funded through the DeKalb School Board, but they did have to approve the project.”
Funds for the video board were raised through donations and through presold advertising on the screen. “The local Booster Club and Junior Pro Football League also helped fund the project,” Trapp said. “All the banners you see on the fence helped out, plus all the ads that are on the scoreboard permanently and the ads you will see running during the games.”
The addition is just the latest effort by the team to help enhance the football experience at DCHS. “We want to make it interactive with the fans and our guys. We don’t want it to be a $100,000 Power Point show. We want to try to get some game action up there as well.”
“It will take some time to learn and we have to have bodies to be able to run it,” Trapp continued. “If we can figure out how to get everything together, to me, that’s an enhancement for our players and everyone coming to see the games.”
Coach Trapp said that the video board will be used not only for Tiger games, but for other teams and events as well. “We want to incorporate our Junior Pro teams, who play on Saturdays. We want little two or three minute highlight clips to play on Friday nights. We want them involved. It will be running during Junior Pro games, and Saints games, with all those ads. The biggest thing is we want to enhance the atmosphere for our guys and our fans.”
Coach Trapp said that through community efforts the DCHS field has changed for the better over the years. “This will be my 18th year coaching, and when you walk through the gates out there, the place looks a lot different than it did 18 years ago. About 98 percent of that has been done through our boosters, Junior Pro, this town, and this community. I understand that schools can’t throw money at everything. The best thing the schools do for me is that they see our vision, and as long as we pass that through them they allow us to do it as long as everything is done the right way.”\
While improvements have been added over the years, Coach Trapp said he still thinks they have a long way to go for fans. “There are more upgrades that are severely needed that are out of my control, like new lights and bleachers. That’s kind of the finally of our vision we’ve had for over a decade. It something that’s needed and been talked about.”
“We’re going to continue to work hard and do the things that we can do,” Trapp continued. “We’ve built the fieldhouse, the ticket booth, the tee-shirt shack, we’ve painted everything, and now the scoreboard. All of that was through community funding. We’re blessed to be able to do that.”
“The way we see it, we talk about do what we do to impact people. They way that you verify that is how the community supports us. We’re going to continue to work hard, continue to challenge our players, and we’re going to do our best to help their parents raise great human beings. I think our town sees that’s what we do and we work really hard to put a quality product out on the field. We are grateful and very appreciative of DeKalb County.”
