With the four-sided video scoreboard closing in on its one-year anniversary of being installed, the vision now moves to the future and brings new features and ideas to enhance the Sterling High School Fieldhouse experience. However, it is important to see just how we got here, and who better to ask than our very own S.H.S. athletic announcer and director of the Sterling Schools Foundation, Jim Spencer.

  Spencer has been the announcer here at S.H.S. since 1994 and has seen all the renovations to our sports facilities. 

  “When the fieldhouse bleacher and floor renovations were complete and looked so awesome, some members of the Sterling Schools Foundation Board of Directors felt a new video scoreboard to match what we have at the stadium would be the perfect finishing touch,” said Spencer. “We were discussing options to replace the old scoreboard in February and March of 2020, but when the pandemic hit, those discussions were put on hold.”

  Last December, the “finishing touch” was finally installed. The addition to S.H.S. is complete with four large LED screens and shows the time, score, fouls, replays, and much more. 

  “There was some discussion of adding video boards to the north and south walls of the fieldhouse and keeping the old “center-hung” scoreboard, but it was eventually decided to go with the current four-sided video board. The company we work with said we were the first high school they work with to install a four-sided board,” Spencer shared.

  With all these attributes, one can only imagine what else can be added. However, Spencer and the Golden Warrior TV crew seem to have a clear vision for the future.

  “Doing live video and instant replays on our video boards is something that you just don’t see very often at the high school level. We will work and continue to enhance that process,” Spencer said. He also added on by saying, “We added ‘live stats’ to the video board for football. I would love to be able to do that in the fieldhouse, too. We will continue to produce video features that promote our student-athletes and business partners.”

  To get a student-athlete’s take on additions to the Jumbotron, sophomore basketball player Nico Battaglia said, “I would like to see fan cam and other fun things like that in the future.” Senior Trevor Dir added in by saying, “I would like to see games on the Jumbotron. It would be very fun for the crowd during time outs.”

  Even with looking at the future, S.H.S. athletes know how lucky they are to have the facilities and technology they do. Both Battaglia and Dir showed their appreciation for the scoreboard by saying it was a “privilege” to have something that not a lot of high schools have. 

  Senior Trevor Dir expanded by saying, “It’s one of those things that sets us apart from other high schools and gives a good experience every time you step on the floor or sit in the bleachers to enjoy a game.”

  We are truly lucky to have the state-of-the-art sports facilities we have here at Sterling High School. Everybody should be excited about the future of the four-side video boar and further athletic updates coming to the S.H.S.