As the football team gets ready to officially kick off their season, they have a new addition to their field.

This new addition is a 69 foot tall and 24 foot wide jumbotron. The idea of this rather large piece of technology, according to Head Coach Doug Greene, has been in the air since the fall of 2019.

After two years of thinking on it, Greene said, “I began to actively pursue it in November of 2020 and we have been working on this as a Quarterback Club since February.” The quarterback club, the promotional organization for the football team, played a major role in making the jumbotron actually happen.

When asked why the jumbotron was installed, Greene stated, “Many people get their first impression of Manchester when they visit the stadium for a sporting event or graduation. We felt like the jumbotron would help sell our town, school, local businesses, and team to the community.”  

He went on to say that Manchester deserves “things that are first class.” With that in mind, the school’s jumbotron is a Samsung board, and according to Coach Greene, Coffee County’s board is one of the only two at a high school stadium.

Greene also added, “Their latest projects have been the Baltimore Ravens and the Las Vegas Raiders. They also did Vanderbilt’s jumbotron.” 

A senior football player, Derrick Scott was asked a few questions about his perspective on the jumbotron, especially since it is his senior season. Scott started by saying that the jumbotron is a “real big thing for us, and not only for the games but for the local businesses.” 

The senior mentioned that ads run through the jumbotron constantly, and it is beneficial to sell the town. In addition to this, Scott stated, “It is also really cool just to be able to be a part of a change here in Coffee County and build up a winning program for football.” 

Regarding ideas for the jumbotron and what the fans, community, and players will see, there are several things that are predicted to be presented up there. Greene says that everyone who is a part of the project is still attempting to find out what all the Samsung board is capable of.

Their ideas for this board include instant replays, hype pre-game videos, dance cams, special occasion shoutouts, commercials for the community and charities Coffee County supports, and tributes honoring past teams and people. 

One question Greene was asked was, “Who helped make all these ideas really come to life?” His response was, “The whole project was paid for by businesses in town.  We have charter sponsors that will have their logo placed below the scoreboard. Coffee County Bank was the biggest sponsor. It was amazing to see how many people in town were excited about the project.”

With this brand new piece of technology, the Coffee County football team is looking forward to kicking off their 2021 season. Their first home game with this new addition is the Coffee Pot, which is on August 27 at 7 p.m.