NEWBERRY — The Newberry High School Bulldogs now have a new and improved — not to mention much safer — football stadium to call home following completion of a project that cost around $4 million.
The foundation and area underneath were beginning to erode and over the years had become a safety hazard.
“With this new stadium, we have a new press box area, which includes a press box for coaches, the clock operator, our radio station WKDK has its own radio room. There’s even another room for the visiting team if they bring a radio station along,” said Joey Haney, Newberry County School District Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Administration.
“Another area on the third level allows a viewing area for more coaches to watch the game and call plays,” he said. “We’ve added a new concession stand, which has definitely increased in size, new restrooms and also on the visitors side we’ve added a new concession stand and restroom area.”
When renovations were still underway, the Bulldogs played host to Fairfield Central High School on Sept. 16. Needing a place to play, Newberry College allowed the Bulldogs to use their facilities and play at Setzler Field.
“We are very appreciative of the partnership with Newberry College to host that game for us, and I think that served two purposes. The first reason being we needed a place to play our game and the second, just giving these high school students the opportunity to play at a college facility on a college field,” he said. “To me, that is a very special opportunity for those student athletes.”
Newberry High School officially unveiled its new stadium to the public on Sept. 30 when the Bulldogs hosted Woodruff High School. Whether the public attended the game to take a look at the new stadium, or if they just came out to enjoy football, Haney said that the local turnout was great.
“Woodruff follows their team very well. They bring a good crowd with them. But I thought we had a great turnout from our local fans,” he said. “Everybody’s been anxious to get into the new stadium, we all have. We wanted to make it a proud moment for the public and not have areas incomplete. I’m sure we had some that just wanted to see the new stadium, but many of those people were just ready to be in the new stadium and support their Bulldogs.”
Newberry High School has already made numerous improvements to its campus and has plans for more improvements. One improvement is a new eight lane track, which is in its final phase of completion and will allow for more track meets to be hosted at Newberry.