Bring on the renovations

Turn out the lights, the prep football parties are about to be over.

By late Friday night, the light standards will fade to black at the high school football stadiums at Huntington Beach and Westminster until fall 2009.

That’s because major renovations and the rebuilding of those two highly used stadium facilities are set to take place near the start of July, leaving local schools Huntington Beach, Marina, Edison, Fountain Valley and Westminster, scrambling to find a home-away-from home — or multiple home sites — for the 2008 prep football season.

The renovation projects will close both stadium facilities for all football games, as well as other sporting events, such as track and field, during the 2008-09 school year, Huntington Beach Union High School District Supt. Van Riley said Tuesday.

Marina has the distinction of playing Sunset League rival Los Alamitos Friday in the final regular season prep football game until 2009 at Westminster’s Bill Boswell Field.

Over at Huntington Beach High that night, host Fountain Valley and Esperanza will play the final regular season game for the next 22 months at Harry “Cap” Sheue Field.

There is the possibility, however, that one or both stadiums could be used for the CIF-SS playoff that begin next week: If Westminster wins the Golden West League title outright by defeating Santa Ana tonight, then the Lions most assuredly will host a first-round game Nov. 16 at Bill Boswell Field.

“It’s going to be very interesting next year,” Huntington Beach High Athletic Director Roy Miller said. “There will be a lot of schools trying to find a new home. There are many, many possibilities as to where these teams will play their home games.”

Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Edison use “Cap” Sheue Field as their home stadium each football season, although Edison, which played there just once this year when it hosted Diamond Ranch Aug. 31, primarily uses Orange Coast College as its home stadium.

Marina and Westminster are the home occupants of Bill Boswell Field.

“Both stadiums are undergoing complete renovation,” Riley said. “We are demolishing all grandstands, outbuildings, the track, with the exception of the south bleachers at Huntington Beach High School, which will be renovated,” Riley said. “Everything else will be replaced.”

Both stadiums will get new home bleachers with a capacity somewhere near 3,000 seats, Riley said. Also new will be ticket, restroom and concession buildings, Musco Lighting, such as standards found at collegiate stadiums, sound systems, digital scoreboards, an all-weather track, an artificial turf field and new hard-scape (sidewalks), and landscaping.

Each stadium also will feature an elevator to the working press box, as part of a requirement to provide access to the disabled, he said, noting that the south bleachers (visitor’s side) at Huntington Beach’s stadium will receive a total renovation with new seats. In addition, rooms under those bleachers will be renovated to include new team rooms, restrooms and storage areas.

The district’s school board approved funding for the projects “several months ago,” Riley said. The board was presented with conceptual drawings of both stadiums. Funding for the projects is through Redevelopment Agency Fees, money that cities use for improvements, such as downtown Huntington Beach, he said.

School districts also get a small portion of the fees but the portion is restricted to facilities improvements, Riley said.

The start of construction will take place at both facilities about July 1, following graduation ceremonies at both stadiums.

The plan, Riley said, is to have both facilities reopen in time for graduation ceremonies in June 2009.

As for the 2008 prep football season, local teams will need to find other stadiums to play their home games.

Miller and Marina Athletic Director Paul Renfrow said both Huntington Beach and Marina were looking to use, among several possibilities, high school stadiums at Ocean View and Newport Harbor as LeBard Stadium at Orange Coast College.

The district’s high school athletic directors from Edison, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Marina, Ocean View and Westminster will hold a scheduling meeting in February 2008, Renfrow said.

“What we’re trying to do is play three nonleague games away from home next year and that way, we won’t have to deal so much with the stadium issue,” Renfrow said of Marina’s 2008 football schedule. “Plus, Orange Coast College and Newport-Mesa Unified School District said they’d help us out with stadium usage when possible.”

“We may see some doubleheaders next year. There are several possibilities for all of these schools. We’ll see what we come up with but things have a way of turning out.”