CENTERVILLE — Schools across the Miami Valley are dealing with diminished capacities in stadiums for sporting events. Now some are trying to find creative ways to increase the stadium capacity to allow more fans at the games.
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Centerville athletic director Rob Dement said that pretty much, all of their school’s 835 tickets for home football games are spoken for with the families of all the participants in football, band, cheer and more.
Friday, Centerville will allow about 100 seniors to buy a ticket to watch the football game from a hill just outside the stadium fences.
Dement cleared this idea with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. High school groundskeeper Mike Davis then got to work with some of the district’s bus drivers to set everything up for the school’s first home varsity football game of the season.
“It’s all about the kids,” Davis said. “The players want to play for their family but they also want to play for their fellow classmates.”
The hill has been fenced off and there’s only one entrance to help monitor the flow of people in and out. There are spots on the hill marked 6-feet apart for students to be socially distanced. It’s open to only senior students who will be required to wear masks. There will be teachers and administrators there as monitors to ensure the rules are followed.
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Dement hopes this serves as motivation for other schools.
“Hopefully, other schools see this and they’re like maybe we can get creative and get our kids involved,” he said. “I want (the students) to come, I want them to have a great time, I want them to cheer positively for our team and just enjoy the moment because quite frankly, a week ago we didn’t know we could have this moment.”
Dement said if Friday night goes well, there is space to let in more seniors. It it does not go well, he said this would be the only week Centerville offers the hillside seating section.
Cox Media Group
