Friday Night Lights Arrive in Bellaire
Kim North Trending
BELLAIRE - Friday night lights are coming to historic Nelson Field.
No, not the hit TV series and movie from 2012, but the actual reality of Bellaire High School playing home football games on Friday nights.
Workers from Musco Sports Lighting installed four light poles late last week in the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest corners of the historic stadium, which underwent a complete renovation of the visitors' side bleachers in the summer of 2022.
Workers from Erb Electric dug trenches and holes to install infrastructure and then connected the light poles to transformers on adjacent poles to complete the $500,000 project.
The first official night time home game in Big Reds history will take place Aug. 23 when Ohio 7 rival Buckeye Local visits for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
"It's certainly something we didn't take lightly," Bellaire Local School District Superintendent Derrick McAfee said of the project. "Bellaire has a longstanding tradition of playing our home football games on Saturdays here. As we started doing the facility upgrades, we realized there's a lot of untapped potential down here - a lot of ability for us to use the field in different ways."
Some of those opportunities include possible marching band shows, junior high games under the lights and even ensuring players don't miss out on the opportunity for home playoff games in the future.
However, the project has come under some scrutiny from longtime community members. There has been a "myth" around the village for decades that the field, purchased from the DuBois family in 1934 and acquired by a "Mr. Nelson" who was a Bellaire school district administrator, was not permitted to have lighting installed.
"Community folklore," McAfee stressed. "There was no agreement."
Even though Saturday afternoon football games were Bellaire's tradition, the administration sees this as a move toward a focus on student safety. They also have a plan to still carry on some of the lasting traditions at Nelson Field.
"It's been a tradition because it's been all we can do," McAfee said. "Going through with this process doesn't mean we are moving every single game to Friday night next year. It's not going to happen."
In fact, only three of the five home games for 2024 will be played on Friday nights. In addition to the battle with the Panthers, Bellaire will also host Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 13 and Canada's Bishop Tonnos on Sept 6. The two home games still scheduled for Saturdays include contests with Indian Creek on Aug. 28 and Union Local on Oct. 18.
"We're really excited about being able to play under the lights on Friday nights," McAfee noted.
New Bellaire Athletic Director Casey Davis said the administrative team has been tossing around several ideas for a "test-out" night for the lights, but nothing is official yet.