Jones County, Gray, GA

Jones County High School Greyhounds

     Jones County was a school Tonya and I came across on our way back from south Georgia.  I think it was the last one we visited on the trip because I remember the camera dying while we were taking pictures, which is why there are only four of them.  I apologize for not having more, especially one that shows the whole stadium or the sign of the school.

Home side of the field

     The home side of the field is a decent size.  This is a quad-A classification high school, and small one at that with the enrollment at 1,171 (schools w/ 1850+ students are placed in five-A).  The far left side of the stands are shorter than the main section and was an addition in the past several years. Now there are no lines on the field yet, but these seats seem very close to the field which is awesome.  The concession stand and booster club tent are right near by which is clutch for every fan and the scoreboard is visible to all.  It's a very standard home-stands look, but it is functional in every way.

Thats the visitors side, and my gf in the picture.  Her hair really isn't that poofy, windows rolled down will do that to long hair haha.  Sorry Tonya! (it does look like something out of the 80s.

     The one thing I like about the visitors stands at Jones County is that it gives the visiting band a section all to themselves.  To me that is nice so that the fans do not have to worry about the band standing up or being in the way the entire game.  Concessions aren't that close by, but definitely within hurry distance if you're needing to get back to the action.  Also once again, let me point out how different the light poles are in the Georgia and Alabama stadiums than the oil rig looking light poles that a lot of the Texas stadiums have.  

Entrance into the stadium.

     This is a gorgeous entrance.  Nice gated area, great statue and plaque to give the visiting fans a unique piece of information about Jones County.  It also gives me a nice shot of the scoreboard which is the type of scoreboard that should be standard at every high school. JCHS has a typically standard high school stadium but the entrance and the hound pound sign are two things that set it apart.

Brantley High School, Brantley, Alabama

I freaking love this sign.  Old school.

    I randomly happened upon Brantley High School (PK-12) when I was driving down to Mobile, AL in May 2011.  It was out of the way, but as soon as I got into Alabama I got off the interstate and hit the back roads.  I had just finished up at visit at Luverne High School (about 25 minutes away), and had told my buddy Alex that I would not stop by any more and I'd head straight to Mobile.  That didn't happen because I stopped by two more.

I wasn't even looking for this place when I turned onto the main street and bam, I hit the jackpot.  

Love this picture, taken from the middle of the road

     This was a gem of a place!  As I pulled in I saw a teacher standing outside the Admin. building and I asked him if it would be alright to take a few pictures.  He said sure, and he took me down the the locker room and introduced me to the head coach, who in turn introduced me to the rest of the staff.  The players had just finished with practice - a few were walking home and others were hitting the weights; and the coaches were studying in their section of the locker room.  I talked with the head coach for a minute and he let me shoot away.

Visitors Side

     The visitors side is pretty standard for a high school football stadium except it has a press box, which makes me think that the visitors side is a new addition.  I'm sure at some point everyone sat on the home side of the field, but I could be wrong.  The green seats are a nice touch, it makes me laugh because the visiting fans have to sit in them which could pose a problem sometimes haha.

Favorite picture

Wide shot of the field, I love pictures like this that show the whole stadium.  I try to get one in every stadium I visit, but sometimes its not possible.  This shot gives the player's point of view before they run out into this place, which  is one of my all time favorite smaller stadiums.  The head coach said it seats about 1500-2000 people which is pretty amazing considering the town population is 920 (Brantley is in the city of Luverne which has a population of 2600. And i'm not so sure that Brantley didn't have a bigger stadium than Luverne HS, which I'll profile later), and the school plays in single-A Alabama football.

Home side

Home side is pretty nice for a Single-A school.  Not spread out, steep and compact.  Perfect for keeping the noise level up, and giving everyone a great view of the game. Not to mention a very decent press box.  This town keeps impressing me.

Great scoreboard for the school, pretty cool backdrop as well.

Bulldog statue

     I'm not sure how long the statue has been there, but its a great addition to the already stellar facilities for a school this size.  Total student body is around 580!  I'm guessing the players touch the bulldog when they run out, but I do not know for sure.

Restrooms and Concessions

Locker room, weight lifting, and coaches offices

I had a great time stopping by Brantley High School, and I want to thank Coach Lowery for letting me chat for few minutes and take some pictures of his stadium.  Good luck in the upcoming season, and if I'm ever down that way in the fall I would definitely stop by to watch the bulldogs play.

   

Dooly County High School, Vienna, Georgia

 As my girlfriend and I were driving back to Anderson, SC from Cordelle, GA after spending a weekend at the lake, I convinced her to let me stop by a few HS stadiums and take pictures.  We stopped at five HS's on the way back, and I had a blast.  Tonya, not so much haha.  However, she was very patient with me even though it made the trip back 2 hours longer.

    

 Dooly County's stadium was pretty small, but large for single-A Georgia High School Classification.

     The set up is very interesting with the entrance to the stadium located on the visitors side of the field.  It is obvious that the visitors stands had been either redone or replaced recently and the home side looks newer as well.  The split seating sections is something I had never seen before except at Charleston Southern University.  Very interesting to say the least, but it gave me a decent shot at the field.  Take notice of the light poles, very different from New Braunfels High.  

     This next picture makes me think that the visitors side used to be the home side, because there is a pressbox on both sides, which is not very common at high school stadiums unless they end up switching the seating around. 

Very interesting set up for the ticket counter haha, but that's one thing I love about these small town football stadiums.  It adds character, history and it is very intriguing. 

     A gazebo sits right outside the stadium, probably a class gift at some point in time.  Kind of a romantic feel to it, most definitely a spot where HS kids have made memorable moments. 

     I really enjoyed getting to visit Dooly High, and even more so I enjoyed the town of Vienna.  Very tiny, very southern and tons of history.  Dooly County is definitely one of the most unique stadiums I have been to, and if I'm ever down that way again I'd love the chance to catch a game there.  

     I'll leave you with this parting photo: Go Bobcats!

Also, if you're wondering what the wooden structure is in the picture, I've been told it is for handicap seating.

More coming next week

Last week I discovered that I could not find pictures on the rest of the stadiums I have visited.  Last night however I found those pictures.  11 stadiums total.
Today I drove down to Mobile, AL to visit some friends for a few days and I made visits to 5 other stadiums along US 29 in East/Southeast AL. Those will be up soon as well.  

The stadium that started it all. Ratliff Stadium (TX)

     I know its a big picture, but it has to be to describe how gorgeous this stadium is.  This is the stadium Friday Night Lights is centered around, the book, the movie and the television series (though the TV series is not shot here).  After reading the book Friday Night Lights - A Town, A Team, and A Dream, by H.G. Bissinger, I was hooked in finding large high school football stadiums.  Over time my love has evolved to every high school stadium I can find, but it all started with the big ones, and Texas has the biggest and the best.  Allen school district is building an $18 million stadium over the next year that seats 26K people.  Three times bigger than the stadium that my college uses.
     After finding out we would be driving through Texas on my trip this summer I had only one request; to visit Ratliff Stadium.  Home to the Permian Panthers and Odessa Bronchos (yes the spelling is correct).  This place rises out of the flat grounds of Texas and dips into the earth, a wild look when standing in the parking lot.  It seats 22K people and even though it is not filled every Friday night in the fall, most Friday nights it is.  We got very lucky when pulling up to this place because the gates were locked, however a maintenance man was about to leave and was kind enough to let us in for 15 minutes.  The 15 minutes turned into 30 as he told me and my dad stories of games in the 80s and 90s; the hey-day for Permian football.  He had worked there for 45 years and was proud to have been employee of the district.  He let us onto the field to take pictures and told us how crazy it was when they filmed the movie "Friday Night Lights" there.

     This is the visitors side of the stadium.  Nothing very special about it, except it holds more than the average high school stadium holds.  There are concession stands and bathrooms on the other side.  But I imagine it is pretty hot sitting over there in the hot Texas fall.  The outside of the stadium is lined in trees and it looks pretty neat, giving it almost a circular arena.

     This is the home side of the stadium.  Same structure as the visitors except for the large press box sitting on top.  This side, just like the visitors holds about 11K people.  It has 'bowl-like' entrances which means you enter in the middle and either go up or go down.  Concessions and restrooms are located behind the seats.

     Another thing I did not mention in the New Braunfels HS post is that the one other thing I love to look at when I visit high school stadiums is the scoreboards.  Ratliff Stadium has a great one.  In one endzone there is a videoboard/scoreboard, and on the other just a plain scoreboard.  That is very rare for most high school stadiums, but since this one is so big it is necessary.

 

     It was truly amazing to be able to visit Ratliff Stadium.  I've loved it ever since I finished the book about 8 years ago and I never thought I would be able to get out to Texas and enjoy seeing this monster.  It was also great to get to talk to someone who had been there for everything I had read and heard about Permian football and the town of Odessa.  There are two more pictures I am going to share with you.  One is just of a parking lot.  The maintenance guy told me that when they filmed the movie, that the parking lot was full of RV's and movie crews and make shift concession stands and all of that stuff that tags along to a movie scene.  The other picture is of the back side of the home stands.  It is a pretty neat view of the press box and the RV I traveled in that summer.  Hope you enjoyed the post, and check back soon for more pictures and stories of stadiums I've visited throughout my travels.

New Braunfels High School Unicorns (TX)

The first stadium I will blog about is New Braunfels HS in New Braunfels, TX.

And yes, that is a Unicorn on the sign for NBHS. As my family and I were driving through Texas this summer we randomly passed by here and as soon as I saw that the stadium name was Unicorn Stadium, we had to stop. I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated for Kids many years ago about strange high school nicknames, and I'm pretty sure this might have been on there.
The stadium is built out of metal, and looks like your basic high school football stadium. Both the home and visitor sides are of equal length with the home side having a press box built on top. There was a decent amount of parking behind the visitors section, but most of the parking was in the actual school parking lot. One neat thing I started to notice about all these stadiums is the way the lights are constructed. To me they look like the tall structures that are built on oil fields that house the machinery used to pump the oil. I've never thought to look at the lights before, but during this trip most of the schools utilized this feature. It may be the way all across the nation. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled next time I pass by a stadium.
Another feature of the high school football stadium I like to look at is the entrance, which includes the section where tickets are taken up and the fans enter the field. This particular stadium had a tiny ticket booth, which to me is classic. It's old school and that's what I love to see. It doesn't match very well with the modern look of this stadium, so it definitely stands out.
**This entrance may be a former entrance, and tickets could be taken up at the gate in the background, but there were windows on that little brick building.
One thing I find hilarious about this picture is the hoof prints leading into the gates. They seriously have some Unicorn pride, which they should for such a unique mascot.
The reason for stopping by this stadium was not because of the uniqueness of the structure, and it was not even one of my planned stops but after seeing the mascot name I knew we had to make a special stop to snap a few photos of this high school.
Here are some more photos:

Getting Started

This is my first post, so let me introduce myself.

I am an avid sports fan who is in love with stadiums, particularly high school football stadiums.  I guess my love for high school stadiums began in high school, but ever since I was a child, stadiums have been a hobby of mine.  On every vacation, I would get a '10' (which means I would get to choose my favorite thing to do while on vacation), and I always chose stadium visits.  There have been too many to name, but most of the time we would walk up to the stadium and just ask them if we could look around.  We only paid for a tour once. Most of the time they would just let us roam around and take pictures.  All of those were professional stadiums: Cleveland Indians, Tennessee Titans (didn't have to pay), Yankee Stadium (didn't have to pay), The Vet (Old Phillies and Eagles dome, didn't have to pay), Fenway Park, Busch Stadium (didn't have to pay), Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, Turner Field and the new Dallas Cowboys stadium.  I've also been to numerous college football stadiums: UGA, Clemson, Ga Tech, Auburn, Alabama, Jacksonville (Ga/Florida game), South Carolina, the Rose Bowl, Superdome (Sugar Bowl), Samford University, Presbyterian College, Furman University, Coastal Carolina, The Citadel, Wofford University, Liberty University, Mars Hill College, Newberry College and Louisville.  I haven't been to most stadiums, to say the least, but I have been blessed with parents who understand, and who have grasped my passion, allowing dme to visit a lot of places and experience many different venues. I'll share some experiences from those trips along the way, but mostly this blog will serve to share my experiences visiting high school football stadiums from the east coast to the west.

To explain my love for high school stadiums I will say this.  I went to a small Christian high school with no football team. However, one of the local high schools is located near my house and I grew up going to their games with my family.  Once I got in high school, I had many friends who went to TL Hanna and I enjoyed watching them play.  Rafael Little, a 4-star RB, was playing for them at the time and it was a treat just to watch him play.  We traveled to away games, tailgated at home games and had a blast.  Visiting all the different stadiums on our away trips was fun and I began to enjoy the tradition and history that each stadium held.  Most stadiums were old. Some had additions added onto them which gave them even more character. Once I went off to college I met friends from all over the southeast.  Traveling back to their hometowns I would always take the back roads and stop by high school and take pictures of their stadiums to start a collection.  This is where the blog comes in.  After several attempts from my mother to start this thing, I've finally jumped in.