New, $50,000 stadium lighting put in on residence area Aug. 13
WESTLOCK – With a flick of a change, there’ll be lights, new lights.
The Westlock Thunderbirds soccer group kicks off their common season Sept. 16 at residence towards Buck Lake and are desperate to hit the sphere below new stadium lighting.
The group welcomes Westlock and space residents to Friday Night Lights on Thursday, Oct. 6. The sport will function a pep rally on the college and a half time present. It would be the first sport below the new $50,000 stadium lighting set-up, which was put in Aug. 13.
“Now we can play at five o’clock and not worry about sunlight anymore in late October,” stated Westlock Football Association fundraising coordinator Jerry Buchko. “We used to play from 4 to 6 p.m. in late October. By 6 o’clock it’s starting to get dark and it’s hard to see the ball. Now we can just turn the lights on.”
Eight gentle poles, 4 on all sides, span from finish zone to finish zone and now grace the Thunderbirds residence area behind Westlock Elementary School. The poles stand 40-ft tall and have 12 lights atop every of them, for a complete of 96 lights.
The lights have been a very long time coming. In 2012, the Westlock Football Association obtained donations of 11 transportable, short-term gentle towers, which they needed to transport each week.
“We had to tow 10 light towers in with volunteers using their trucks and then we had to adjust the lights. They sat from Wednesday to Sunday night and then Monday morning we had to tow them all back,” stated Buchko. “Now it’s only a flick of a change — they’re quiet, they don’t make any noise.
“They’re LED lights and they come on instantly and go off instantly,” he added, noting practices by mid-October can even be held below the lights.
It took one full day to put in the lights, stated Buchko, noting the work was accomplished by eight staff together with Damien George and Adam Hardinge from Fortis, Bernhard Pfaeffli and Chad Wade from Kiewit Construction, Chase Provencal and Shaun Wiese from Pro Power, Mark Littlechilds from LC Welding and a zoom increase donation from TPH in Westlock.
“Terry from TPH donated a zoom boom to lift us all the way up to adjust each individual light,” stated Buchko. “This is a $50,000 operation that was all donated — time, materials, lights. The workers were here in 33-degree heat and did phenomenal work.”
Buchko stated he’s grateful for the enterprise and neighborhood help for highschool soccer over the previous 16 years, and for the work and volunteer assist putting in the lights to make them a actuality for the Westlock Football Association. Other sports activities teams together with flag soccer and soccer or any neighborhood group that wants lighted, out of doors house can contact Buchko for availability.
The membership’s subsequent purpose is to put in a twig park and alter rooms on the grounds, adjoining to the soccer area, that can be utilized by households and different sports activities teams in Westlock.
The Thunderbirds started practices for the 6-man soccer league Aug. 31 and can start the common season at residence Sept. 16 towards Buck Lake. Kickoff is 5 p.m. They will play eight video games this season with the Friday Night Lights sport, Oct. 6. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m.
