Community Stadium Brightens Up The Night Sky

The 50 yard line stands ready to welcome players and specators alike to Friday's opening of the new community stadium.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – With a serious push the last month to get as much of the new stadium completed for football, it appears all the hard work is paying off. The lights came on at the community stadium for all to see Thursday evening.

With work still being completed, the stands should be ready on the home side of the field with temporary seating available on the visitor side. Portable restrooms and food trailers are also ready to serve spectators.

Joe Crookham, Oskaloosa resident and President and CEO of Musco Sports Lighting, was on hand to observe the lights as they came on at the new stadium. “For me, it’s been a long journey. We built the first two softball fields in 1969, and so we’re talking 42 years we’ve working out here with this. What’s really fun for me, is that 5 o’clock will be the freshman game, and my grandson will be playing in that game. I’ll get to watch my grandson play in the first game played on this field,” Crookham said smiling and thinking about that first game to be played tomorrow.

“The light levels are really strong. We typically light around the county, we’ll typically light high school fields somewhere between 30 and 50 foot candles and this right now is at 90, and we still have a few more lights to be put in next year when we get the press box finished. It should be about 100 foot candles. That’s pretty bright,”Crookham explained about the lighting at the new stadium being installed by Musco.

Also to be added in the future is a 200 foot flag pole that will be lighted as well. For a perspective on that height, the current lighting poles are 100 foot in height, so the new flag should be able to be seen from some distance.

We hope to see everyone at the new stadium Friday evening starting at 5 for the Freshman game, with the Varsity Old Shoe Game to follow.

The new community stadium under the lights and a rainy mist Thursday, the night before the big day.