PRS: New Stadium
10/10
‘Welcome home’: Pike Road, Patriots excited over new stadium
PIKE ROAD — The greeting stares back from too many light poles with a soothing reminder of where they are. For the first time, when the Pike Road football team heads to the field for its latest game, the Patriots won’t have to see the sign as they drive past. “Welcome home” suddenly has a whole new meaning. The Patriots, in their second year as a varsity team, will finally have a home of their very own. “We’re ready for it,” junior tight end Griffin Robinson said. “We’ve played on everyone else’s field. Now, we have our own.”
Pike Road will christen its new football stadium, complete with an artificial surface that has an NFL past, on Friday when the Patriots (7-0) host Dadeville (1-6). Kickoff is at 7 p.m. There won’t be a pressbox yet — look for coaches to be in construction lifts to get a strategic look at the game — but the new stands are finished, the logos are on the field and the scoreboard awaits Pike’s latest win. “It’s here and it’s awesome,” senior defensive lineman CJ Paymon said Monday. “I go out there every day and look at it. I was out there this morning at 5 o’clock. “We had workouts at 6:15, and I decided to come early and go out on the field.”
The $3 million project will include baseball and softball fields for the Patriots. The school — which will continue to honor its Georgia Washington past — is also undergoing an additional $7 million renovation. There’s work to be done on the football team’s locker room, though that $35,000 is coming from boosters, superintendent Chuck Ledbetter said. Washington’s grave, which is located on the edge of campus, is in line for a more-formal tribute, too. An architectural group from Tuskegee University has made designs. “We want to embrace that legacy,” Ledbetter said, “as well as build our own legacy.”
The most-public foray will be Friday when the 2,500-seat football stadium, including 250 red, chairback seats; the 100,000-square foot field; the special LED Musco lights; and a state-of-the-art sound system debut. ‘It’s going to be beautiful,” coach Patrick Browning said. The first game will mark the end of a four-year process for the Patriots — and, in a way, a 23-year journey for the Town of Pike Road.
The city incorporated in October 1997 and was a mere hamlet of about 350 people. By 2010, there were almost 5,500 people living here. As of July 2018, according to U.S. Census data, the population had swelled to 9,800.
But that’s the city’s story. The school is something else. Pike Road School first opened in 2015 with the oldest students in eighth grade. The Class of 2020 graduates will be the system’s first. In football, the Patriots first started practicing in 2015 with a middle school schedule that fall. Last year was Pike Road’s first as a varsity team. Friday’s first true home game could qualify as Pike Road’s debutante ball. “For those people who invested in us as eighth-graders, for them to be here for the first home game is like the cherry on top of a sundae,” Pike Road Mayor Gordon Stone said. “To be part of the first home game will be something they’ll never forget.”
Having their own stadium promises to be a boon for the Patriots, whose previous “home” games have been at Alabama State or Faulkner. It will become a focal point of community pride and school spirit. “I know it was big for us,” said Mike Turk, who made his home debut as Huntingdon’s football coach in September 2004 with a game at St. James. Huntingdon’s on-campus Samford Stadium, at the old Cloverdale School, opened a month later. “It makes all the difference in the world,” Turk said. “You’re talking about the community coming to your campus. Your players walk out of their locker room and run onto your field. “It’s just a whole different atmosphere.”
There are stories behind many pieces to the Pike Road stadium puzzle. The turf field, which cost $320,000 on its own, was formerly in the Louisiana Superdome, and the New Orleans Saints played on it last season. Before it was installed and the paint chemically scrubbed, there was a faint black and gold “Saints” in the end zones. Pike Road has an eight-year lease at $40,000 per year on the turf, Ledbetter said. Natural-grass maintenance costs $50,000-$60,000 per year.
“We essentially have unlimited use,” Ledbetter said. “All that’s fine because it can handle the wear. As an old coach, I remember having to keep everybody off the field. “You had to treat it like sacred ground.” The field is the largest artificial turf field in the state of Alabama, Browning said.
Pike Road soccer will of course also use the facility, along with the band, physical-education classes, and many others. Ledbetter said he hopes the Patriots will soon add lacrosse to that mix. (The AHSAA does not currently sponsor lacrosse, though it has been previously proposed and could be again.) The Musco lights are able to put on a show of their own with strobes, patterns and “endless possibilities,” Browning said. They cost about $200,000, Ledbetter said.
The CoachComm sound system costs $80,000, but it will be portable and used for baseball and softball, as well, Ledbetter said. “We were able to really cut the cost in half by going with a higher system because we’re able to move it around,” he said. Stone admits he’s driven past the stadium like a child eager for Christmas morning. And all of Pike Road can join in unwrapping the present. “The credit for this goes to so many people,” Stone said. “It’s truly a community celebration.”
The Patriots hope Georgia Washington is proud. Washington, born a slave in Virginia, graduated from college in 1882. She moved to Alabama and started the People’s School of Mount Meigs in 1893. She died in 1952. The school, at the time, was part of the Montgomery system and was named for her. Pike Road’s campus remains named for her. Washington’s grave will include a memorial park. “She dedicated her life to educating all the people in this area and preparing them for the future,” Ledbetter said. “We plan to tell her story, and it’s a very important story. “Miss Washington was such a huge part of this area, and our community and children need to understand that.” Washington’s grave is within sight of the stadium and the school. She’s already watched so many changes — with more to come.
The Class of 2020 will be merely the first of many to come. Friday’s stadium debut is just the next step. “We have great kids, we have great community support, and our kids know it,” Ledbetter said. “They’re going to be excited to finally have a home. “It’s going to be a big night.”
