When the Carlmont football team runs on the field Friday night, Carlmont Athletics will start a new era with the unveiling of a brand new stadium overhaul. After years of speculation and build up, Carlmont will no longer be the only school in the Sequoia Union High School district without lights.

“All of freshman and sophomore year I was really embarrassed to play home games [for soccer] because we would never be able to finish our games if it got dark,” said junior Jordan Kiss.

District officials did want Carlmont to have lights, but the mission for them was not an easy one. Rumors swirled for years that lights were on the way, but they never materialized.

However, during the second semester of last year, the school held a series of townhall-like meetings to judge the community’s feelings toward the possibility of stadium lights.

The feedback was mostly positive, but there were also some setbacks; neighbors were concerned that the school getting new lights would surely mean more traffic and noise in and around their neighborhoods.

District officials took the neighbors concerns and crafted a set of guidelines that Carlmont must follow when using the field and lights.

The regulations for using the lights included the following: the lights cannot be used during the weekdays past 8:30 p.m. at night, 10:30 p.m. for football games on Fridays, and cannot be used on either Saturday or Sunday.

Carlmont would also be limited to the number of night football games and field usage by other sports will also have its restrictions.
After being approved by the school administrators and neighbors the district was able to give Carlmont the money needed to buy and install four floodlights.

“School spirit is going to improve with the new lights, especially because night games get everyone very pumped up,” said Varsity Soccer player Jake Retchless, “no matter what sport is playing.”

Four 70-foot tall high-tech light poles have been put in around the field, each equipped with bulbs that emit beams directly on the field which reduces unwanted spillage into neighboring areas. These lights will be used during nighttime sporting events such as football, soccer, and lacrosse.

“Whenever the school rented out lights in the past years people would flood to the games, with new lights everyone is going to all the games from here on out,” said junior, Pasha Minkovsky.

The new visitor stands will seat 456 people and the added visitor capacity will be accommodated with the increased parking spaces adjacent to the field which also serves as additional parking for seniors and juniors during the day and spectators during sporting events.

“The parking spaces for juniors are going to be greatly appreciated, now we won’t have to park far away from school and walk in or wait in traffic and be late to class,” stated Kiss.

When Carlmont Football takes the field for the first official time on Friday, Sept. 21 against Aragon High School everyone on the field and in the stands will be very proud of all the hard work and effort that went into this massive project.

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