Valentina Fuentes, Story Editor
@valentfcourant
There’s a new look at Dunning Stadium, and it’s impossible to miss. Towering over the field, NCHS’ brand new professional scoreboard made its debut this past summer, just in time for fall sports.
While the board had already been used for home games for other sports, the wider student body was introduced to the scoreboard at the home opener football game against Ridgefield on September 19th, where it was put on full display. The board projected recaps of every play, making sure fans never missed a moment. Colored lights also matched the Booster Club’s red theme, and new graphics accompanied touchdowns and yard kicks.
But these advancements seen at the game aren’t just for football. The scoreboard has built-in programming that, with data packets that are transmitted to the board, can adapt to each sports rule, stats, and other requirements, according to Athletic Director Jay Egan. “For soccer, the board can flash ‘goal kick.’ For field hockey we could use videos or athlete pictures, for senior days of all sports we could highlight all the players,” he said.
Steps have also been taken to create more of a professional gameday experience. In the fall team photo shoots, a separate picture was taken for each player that ensured their jersey number was visible. This move hints at plans to project player photos on the board after goals, touchdowns and other key plays for every sport.
The new board replaces the school’s previous scoreboard, which had been in use for 13 years and was the first ever digital video scoreboard established in any high school in Connecticut.
Manufactured by OES, the older system became difficult to maintain after the company that made the old board got sold to Samsung. Because of this replacement parts were no longer being made, becoming a risk according to Athletic Director Jay Egan.
Recognizing the issue, the athletic department brought it to the Board of Education last September during budget planning. With the town’s support, access to funding was secured ahead of the new fiscal year, an order was placed in May, and installation was completed by July, just in time for the fall sports season.
“We have been working on getting to know all the aspects of what the board can do,” Mr. Egan said. “Just yesterday we did a webinar, and the resolution on the scoreboard is ten times what we had before, almost TV quality.”
Some of the new aspects is that the new screen can be split into five sections, allowing live stats, game footage, ads, and graphics to run at the same time. And, regardless of what’s being projected, game score and time now appear in a fixed section below the video screen.
With all these new capabilities comes the challenge of managing them. “What we have realized now is that the scoreboard’s potential depends on creating and entering new content. Right now, we are using it in a basic way, but there is no limit to what we can do except having someone to do so,” Egan explained.
“That is why we are looking for a student or even a few students who might be interested in helping us on game days by running the scoreboard and managing the different content,” said Egan. “It could even become a club. Students could design videos, graphics, or special effects to enhance the game day atmosphere. The Booster Club already does advertising, so ads could be included too.” With the right team in place, the scoreboard could be used in ways not even imaginable before.
If you’re interested in helping run the scoreboard or starting a club to create content for game days, reach out to Jessica Huetter at jessica.huetter@ncps-k12.org for more information.
