New scoreboard debuts against Westfield

The old scoreboard died the way it lived: slowly, and during a timeout. When its center panel went dark for good last November, the athletic department put the replacement cost at $38,000 — money the district budget did not have.

The boosters had it in thirty-four months. The total came from the kind of fundraising nobody writes about: $6,200 in car washes, $4,800 from concession stands the volleyball parents ran at other schools’ tournaments, and a donated match from Fairview Auto Group that closed the gap in June.

The new board arrives with a clock that works, a screen that can spell every player’s name, and one condition from the boosters: the first name displayed had to be the custodial crew’s, who kept the old board running two seasons past its warranty.

“We could have leased a cheaper board twice by now,” said athletic director Renee Cole, who inherited the project in its second year. “The boosters wanted one this town paid for one car wash at a time. That took longer, and it was the right call.”

The board goes live tonight at 7, when football hosts Westfield. The boosters will be in the stands. The custodial crew has seats in the front row.

The project nearly stalled in its second year, when the installation quote came in $9,000 over the estimate. Cole said the boosters voted to keep raising money rather than cut the video screen from the order.

Booster president Luis Ortega, whose own children graduated before the fundraising began, said the group never considered stopping. “Every car wash, somebody asked when the board was coming,” Ortega said. “We figured the question was the answer.”

Head custodian Frank Delgado, whose crew’s names will light up first, said the old board owed nobody anything. “We just didn’t want the kids playing under a dark clock,” Delgado said.

The old board’s center panel will not go to waste. The art department has asked for it.