ROCKINGHAM – Anyone who has driven past Richmond Senior High School’s campus this summer, and more specifically Raider Stadium, may have noticed some major changes going on.
Thanks to a $200,000 grant awarded to the program last July by state representative Ken Goodman, the 46-year-old stadium is getting a complete facelift ahead of the 2018 season. While the field surface itself is in near immaculate shape year-round, many of the facilities and amenities are getting a total overhaul.
Many of the renovations are cosmetic, and the major one has been the repainting of areas around the field from forest green to kelly green (Richmond’s official color). Other major additions to the stadium are brand new college regulation goal posts and freshly planted hedgerows along the trademark hillsides that bookend the bleachers.
And for second-year head coach Bryan Till, who has molded himself into the pulse of the Raider football program in just one season, the updates are far more than sprucing the place up.
For him, it’s personal. And more so for Till and his players, the fresh paint and new facilities bring a strong sense of revitalization and renewal of life to a once, and still proud Richmond football history.
“Last year, we knew we had a few little things we wanted to update around the stadium after we received the grant money,” Till explained. “We assessed what needed to be done, and it started off with Brad (Denson) and I talking about how those things could get updated.
“The idea was to put our hands on the history, and make it tangible to our players,” he continued. “We wanted them to respect and feel as though they are a part of the tradition here.”
In terms of getting his players and coaches involved in the upkeep of the stadium, Till used the final week of summer workouts as an opportunity to embrace Richmond’s illustrious winning culture. Tying together physical conditioning and a little bit of elbow grease, players spent last Thursday cleaning nearly two dozen signs around the stadium.
“It was a great morning — we had the kids workout on the way up the stadium,” Till said. “They ran sprints from the locker room to the stadium and stopped to do push ups at the speed bumps along the way.
“There were 20 signs that we sprayed down, mostly the conference and state championship sings, and the ones honoring (Richmond’s) NFL players,” he added. “ We broke the guys up into 20 groups, and they wiped them off to bring some life back to them.”
Following the tangible part of the experience, Till and his coaches gathered the players for their after-practice devotional, which explained the why behind the whole project.
Richmond players meet after cleaning 20 signs around Raider Stadium. Photo courtesy of Jay Jones.
“The goal was for this to be a lot more than just cleaning up the signs,” Till noted. “I wanted it to be more about the tradition and heritage of our program. We talk a lot about building a link amongst ourselves as a team and making it stronger, but I hoped this would help link to ourselves to who has been here before. I wanted the team to take ownership and show reverence.”
The head coach also posed the question of “what part do you want to play” in the history of the program to his players, and encouraged the varsity and junior varsity teams to think about what it would mean to “come back in 10 years.”
“We also brought up the ‘eight years’,” Till said, referencing how the Raiders have won a 4A state title in the eighth year of every decade since the school opened in 1972. “This program has won seven state titles — and we want to kids to respect that and talk about it.”
Over the course of the summer, a handful of local companies have offered their services to renovate Raider Stadium. Toward the end of June, Mitchell Hodges and his crew from Hodges Lawn and Landscape, Inc. planted dozens of hedges along the hillsides inside the stadium, as well as in front of it.
“Mitchell and his crew did a fantastic job,” Till said. “The hedges will take two years to grow out, and their purpose is to help stop the erosion of the hillsides. There’s irrigation for the hedges, so they serve a functional and aesthetic purpose.”
Photo of the new hedges planted on the hillside on the southwestern corner of Raider Stadium.
Last week, Robby and Brandon Hughes of Hughes Welding and Crane Services brought in the heavy machinery to install two new field goal posts. According to Till, the old ones were beginning to “turn out of line,” and the 20-something years they’d served was plenty. The Hughes team made quick of its time by using the old bases to create a sleeve for the new posts to be inserted.
“They needed to be replaced because they were starting to turn,” Till explained. “They are now 30 feet high like the ones that are used at the college level. The new ones help upgrade the stadium and will serve as a functional use — like in the playoffs, you don’t want to be unsure if a kick is good — the taller height will help with that.
“Robby and Brandon did fabulous work and saved time and possible damage to the field,” he added. “They really took care of everything.”
In the future, remaining funds from the grant will go toward updating the home pressbox, as well as make some changes in the G.R. Kindley Field House on the west end of the stadium. Till hopes the renovations in the press booth will allow for more space and address the needs of radio broadcasts, public address announcers, coaches and special guests visiting home games.
Work to renovate the home press box will begin sometime over the winter, Till said.
As the Raiders continue their official practices by adding pads during Wednesday’s workout, Till wanted to recognize the 96 varsity and junior varsity players who earned the right to be in the 100 percent club for summer workouts. There were 28 more players who attended at least 80 percent of the time, which compared to last year’s 34-member group, Till noted was “pretty impressive.”
Note: Per RSHS athletic director Ricky Young, both reserved seating football tickets and booster club memberships for the 2018 season will go on sale on Tuesday, Aug. 7. Both are $50 per person, and for more information, contact RSHS at 910-997-9812.
