Preserve the Pride event well attended

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

With less than 10 days left until the May 3 primary election, Van Wert City Schools officials and the Eggerss Stadium Renovation Committee made a big push to urge voters to approve a 20-year bond issue to raise $5 million to renovate and improve the historic downtown stadium.

Sunday’s Preserve the Pride event attracted several hundred people to the stadium, which was first used in 1936.

“It’s time,” Superintendent Mark Bagley told the crowd. “There needs to be some things done and our stadium committee has done a wonderful job explaining the reasons. We have an opportunity…finally there’s a chance for our community, for Van Wert to step up and do something.”

If the bond issue is approved by school district voters, preliminary plans call for concrete restoration; widening aisles on the home side and the addition of handrails; handicapped seating and accessibility; a new concession stand, larger restrooms, a new home locker room and storage, all under the stadium; bleachers for the Cougar Pride Marching Band in the south end zone; a new concession building with restrooms and storage in the south end zone; an expanded home side press box; artificial turf, additional parking, and preservation of the Cougar Pride Wall.

If approved, the annual cost for the owner of a home with a taxable value of $100,000 would be approximately $40 annually. Literature provided at Sunday’s event noted plans are not extravagant and it said “private contributions will be used to enhance current plans at the wishes of the donor(s) and naming rights will be granted.”

In addition to Bagley, those in attendance heard from 2002 Van Wert High School graduate Joel Penton, who went on to play football for Ohio State and now works as a motivational speaker at schools around the nation.

“What we have here in Van Wert, Ohio, with Eggerss Stadium is very unique and very special,” Penton told the crowd. “I’ve been in hundreds of schools and I go by stadiums and they’re basically versions of the visitors stands (at Eggerss) in a field. It makes me so grateful and appreciative of the special thing we have in downtown Van Wert, right by the creek and right by the library.”

“This stadium means a lot to me personally,” Penton added. “It’s been a big part of my life and some of my earliest memories were formed in this stadium. I remember sitting in the stands watching my older sisters playing in the band and just dreaming about one day playing on this field under the lights.”

Penton also talked about various traditions when he played under former coach Jeff Hood and recalled being late for practice for one day and having to do bear crawls across the field, a memory that drew laughter from the crowd.

“All of the traditions here in this place makes it very special,” Penton said. “When you play at Ohio Stadium, as great as that is, it’s just a sea of faces and you don’t know any of them and eventually it’s just a big blur. When you play on this field, at least for me I could see the church where I grew up and got baptized, and I could see and pick out in the stands faces of my teachers and my neighbors.”

After hearing remarks from Bagley and Penton, those attending the event had the opportunity to take part in short information breakout sessions, including behind the scenes stadium tours, stations with the most renderings of the proposed project, video stations and a media table.

More information about the proposed renovations, including questions and answers about the project can be found at https://www.vwcs.net/vwathletics/Content/eggerss-stadium-renovations.