The sun sets on Skip Pope as cheers from the crowd echo throughout the stadium. The lights shine brightly on the field as the players run across. The crowd breaks out in celebration as hope for the new season fills them. It is fourth down and the team is down by 6 points. The quarterback throws a hail mary to the wide receiver in the end zone, and it is caught. The crowd looks at the scoreboard in disbelief and erupts in cheer. 

The football field has a new addition that has not gone unnoticed by students and faculty. Recently, the school installed a new scoreboard. It got its premiere at the football scrimmage on Aug. 6. The scoreboard’s installation began Aug. 4 and finished right before the first football game. The new addition offers new features that the sports teams can use to their advantage. 

The original scoreboard was built 26 years ago back in 1995. After facing many issues in the past few years, the scoreboard became inoperable last April. The addition was originally supposed to occur in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the installation was pushed back a year. 

“It adds a lot of enhancement to the experience for the fans that come to the games, not only for football, but for all the Junior Chiefs games on the weekends, as well as soccer and lacrosse,” Athletic Director Peter Vajda said. “It brings a lot to the school, and it gives us the ability to generate revenue via sponsors and so forth to help pay for it.” 

The new scoreboard is from Formetco, a nationwide company that has done installations for Creekview High School and Georgia State University. The board acts like a TV screen that is controlled through a computer and software system in the production room. The audio and video production class, run by Coach Brad Mann, has been making ads and videos to premiere on the screen. The class is also able to stream live videos and replays on the scoreboard. The students have made hype videos for the football team to debut on the scoreboard. 

“It can do anything a TV can do,” Vajda said. “We do not even know [the limits of] what it can all do yet.” 

The brand-new addition will not only be used for the football team. All varsity, and even junior varsity, sports that use the football stadium will have access to the board and all the features available. 

“It will be cool; a couple of clubs have come to us and asked if they could do a movie night because it is really just a giant television screen,” Vajda said. 

Marching band was one of the clubs who had reached out to host a movie night on the scoreboard. The movie night would be available to all students and would function as a fundraiser for the band. The event is not confirmed yet, but they could potentially host the movie night in October. 

“It will enhance the athletic department and what we do here at Sequoyah” Vajda said.

Despite its installation setback, the scoreboard at Skip Pope is back and better than ever!