It’s been nearly a year since the leadership of the St. Clairsville Area Soccer Association began mulling about the idea of getting permanent lighting at the Capstone Soccer Complex just outside St. Clairsville.
It’s been more than 20 years since the SCASA organization acquired the land and started adding recreational facilities and additional amenities to Capstone, providing one of the finer not-for-profit facilities in the Ohio Valley.
Today, hundreds of young soccer players from 6u level up through 14u play lots of games during the week and on the weekends, utilizing nearly every inch of Capstone’s three playing fields.
The organization has made use of portable light towers in recent years in effort to further extend the playing day, providing for additional opportunities for the organization’s athletes.
But in terms of safety and overall effectiveness, the towers just aren’t getting it done.
“We began talking last December and we’ve known for years about the need for lights,” SCASA’s Rick Ferrell admitted. “We’ve been using the light towers to get the games in, and it’s become a big task. They just aren’t sufficient, and they are expensive to light the fields.
“It’s definitely a safety concern, both during the games and after. We just want to protect the kids and the people.”
The towers provide just enough light to get the games in, but it’s a far cry from what you’d consider ideal. Players can see, technically, but it’s still fairly dark on many spots on the field. The same is said for the parking lot, which, as SCASA president Dave Hahn explained, but can be just as big of a problem.
“We run out real young kids in on two different nights,” Hahn said. “We’d have 90 cars, sometimes 90-110 cards in the same general vicinity, with another 90-100 cars coming in. You have people coming and trying to leave at the same time, and usually right around dusk.
“Obviously, that’s a real safety issue and I cringed every time.”
It’s especially troublesome during the fall, even for the older age groups that have teams from Wheeling, Moundsville, and Wellsburg come over to play. It’s hard for families to make it to St. Clairsville before 5:30, so trying to cram in as many games as possible, safely, became an issue.
Light Up Capstone
Thus, the Light Up Capstone movement was born.
The plan calls for funding to be raised to help install permanent lighting at all three fields. That is the plan by the project’s end.
“Initially, we believed this would be around a $150,000 project. But with the pricing just exploding, we think it will probably be potentially around $180,000 to complete.”
Sponsorship opportunities are available for private donors and corporate sponsors. Any help provided will be greatly appreciated and more information can be found on the project’s website.
That being said, the organization itself has some of its own money invested in the project already according to Melinda Thompson.
“Capstone has invested about $50,000 of its own savings already to put the (permanent) poles in the ground and to get the design approved for the new electrical and lighting system,” Thompson said. “The project kicked off with savings and some grants, which have been fantastic.”
Thompson revealed that shortly, two separate businesses will be revealed publicly, as each has made a sizable donation in order to secure field naming rights, one field each per business.”
According to the project website, the cost for purchasing the naming rights for 10 years is $25,000; $10,000 for three years. So, either way, the project is off to a good start.
Now, the aim is to take the project fully public and help generate a swell of community—both from St. Clairsville and the greater soccer community—support for the project.
“We’re just launching our public campaign and want to get the word out to people about individual donations,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of corporations that donated smaller sums too. Every donation counts and we’re thankful for each and every one.”
Additional Benefits
The upfront benefits are obvious. This is, after all, for school-aged children and during the fall and spring, those children have to attend school during the day.
That leaves a small window each night to get games in, one that’s even smaller given the absence of proper field lighting.
SCASA estimates that Monday-Friday gameplay opportunities will be increased by 123%. There will be a net overall increase of available play hours of 152.
As Hahn described earlier when talking about the parking issues at dusk and later, proper lighting will also help most major issues with visibility in the parking areas.
But there are other potential benefits as well.
Ferrell and Hahn both noted that SCASA is seeing an increase in participation across all age levels in its organization.
While currently just a recreation league organization, the prospect of adding club-level play to SCASA has been discussed. Additional field availability, both for potential club teams themselves, and the prospect of being able to host large-scale tournaments because of increased playing hours, are also possibilities.
“We do have one of the premier facilities in the tri-state area that is privately owned by a completely non-profit organization,” Ferrell said. “By lighting these fields, we will be the premier facility for recreational soccer and, potentially in the future, for club soccer if we can make it work.”
Judging by SCASA’s past history, making it work shouldn’t be a problem. The organization is financially responsible and has seen a ton of work be completed throughout the years, this despite operating with nearly all volunteers.
