THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030533
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 131 lines
It began one Saturday morning two years ago when Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim drove to Norfolk Academy to watch his daughter play in a youth soccer game.
Entering the campus, Fraim noticed that Norfolk Academy had recently constructed a small football stadium. It was modest, to be sure, with 1,000 aluminum bleacher seats, no lights and a cramped press box.
Yet it occurred to Fraim that Academy's stadium was better than anything the city had built for its high schools, and that bothered him.
He returned to city hall the following Monday determined to try and remedy the situation. He soon learned that Norfolk was the only city in Hampton Roads that had never constructed a high school football stadium. Norview's Chittum Field, the city's only on-campus public high school stadium, was built by old Norfolk County (now the city of Chesapeake) in the 1940s and renovated in the 1980s largely with private money.
Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk had provided each high school with a stadium, and even inner city Portsmouth anteed up for a stadium at Churchland and has plans to build one at Norcom.
But for Norfolk schools Lake Taylor, Booker T. Washington, Granby and Maury, a home game has meant busing to Chittum Field or Harbor Park, or, years ago, Foreman Field.
``It felt like we never had a home game,'' said longtime Lake Taylor football coach and athletic director Bert Harrell. ``It felt like we played 10 road games every year. We were a program without a home.''
All that ends tonight, when the Titans open their new, 2,500-seat stadium by hosting Churchland at 7:30. A dedication ceremony precedes the game at 7.
Next Friday, Booker T. opens the second city-funded stadium when it hosts Wilson.
Both schools expect sellouts for the openers, and say the stadiums will reap copious dividends for their schools and neighborhoods.
``I honestly believe this will help the surrounding neighborhood, that it will help bring some of the destructive things we see going on to a halt,'' said Booker T. athletic director Charles Harvin, who has been at the school for 22 years.
Norfolk Vice Mayor Paul Riddick agreed.
``Both schools are going to gain some pride from having their own stadiums,'' he said. ``I think the neighborhoods around Booker T. will especially benefit. So many children of middle school and high school age can walk to school at Booker T.
``Because they don't drive many couldn't get to Norview. Now they can now walk to the football games. It will give children something else positive to do they didn't have before.''
Riddick was an early ally of Fraim on the stadiums project, one that has taken a year longer than Fraim had hoped. They discovered early-on that Maury and Granby didn't have enough land for on-site stadiums, and that it would cost nearly $2.5 million to build stadiums at Booker T. and Lake Taylor.
School officials weren't anxious to put that kind of dough into athletics, so Fraim and Riddick persuaded the five other City Council members to appropriate the money from their budget, an expense that Fraim says fits the city's strategy of trying to infuse a sense of community into its neighborhoods.
``Anyone who ever attended high school football games at Foreman Field, which is no longer available to our high schools, can remember the rivalries, but also the goodwill that was felt between the schools and the fans and the community,'' Fraim said.
``It was a great learning experience for the students. I believe it ought to be a part of their high school experience.''
That has been Harrell's dream for 29 years. He was the head coach at Lake Taylor when it opened in 1967. At the time, a 5,000-seat stadium with a track was planned for a site adjacent to the lake for which the school is named.
But cost overruns changed those plans. Though a football field was graded and a track constructed, the stadium was scratched. The Titans played one varsity game there - in 1967 against now-defunct Frederick Military Academy - then became resigned to playing home games on the road.
Over the years, Harrell tried everything he could think of to build a stadium. When it appeared Fort Story might close because of downsizing, he persuaded the Army to donate lights and seats from some of its facilities, a plan that fizzled when the base remained open.
When Met Park closed, he tried to get the stands and light poles moved to Lake Taylor. ``But it would have cost more to move the lights than it would have cost to bring in new ones,'' said Harrell, now athletic director for the city schools.
In the 1980s, city officials briefly considered building stadiums at Booker T. and Lake Taylor. Booker T. even began a stadium funding drive under former athletic director Zeke Avery.
But it all came to naught until Fraim and company took up the cause.
The stadiums can best be described as cozy and functional. Each has 2,000 aluminum bleacher seats on the home side, 500 on the visitors' side, restrooms, lights, a scoreboard and a small press box. Except for some minor engineering changes made to fit the sites, and stadium colors (which reflect school colors), they are identical.
The stadiums are smaller than most in Hampton Roads and only one-third the size of Chittum Field. The schools average about 1,500 admissions per game, Harrell said. With standing room roped off, the new stadiums will be adequate, officials say.
Both were built around existing tracks, which were refurbished. The fields were sloped for soccer as well as football and modern draining systems were installed.
The city constructed a lighted walkway from a parking lot behind Lake Taylor to the stadium and acquired the old Atlantic Ice building across Princess Anne Road from Booker T. The building will be demolished and a parking lot built for the stadium.
Fraim said he is concerned that Maury and Granby remain as football vagabonds.
``My hope is that someday the city will construct another facility that both Maury and Granby can call their home field, perhaps somewhere west of Granby Street or on the north end,'' he said.
Until then, they will split their games between Harbor Park and the three high school stadiums. The good news is that with four stadiums rather than two, virtually all Norfolk high school games will be played on Fridays. For decades, a lack of stadiums has forced many games on Thursday and Saturday. At times, Chittum Field has hosted three games in one weekend.
Lake Taylor athletic director Russell Flynn said he can't wait for the Titans' first true home game since 1967.
`Our stadium looks like it's set in the country,'' he said. ``You have a view of the lake and the trees. It's a gorgeous view. This is going to be a great place to play football.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by HUY NGUYEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Lake Taylor opens its 2,500-seat football stadium with a dedication
ceremony at 7 p.m. and a 7:30 game against Churchland. Next Friday,
Booker T. opens the second city-funded stadium when it hosts Wilson. by CNB