For years, Community Stadium at Falling Springs has been home to the Jackets, but in the foreseeable future, it looks as though the sports teams are relocating to a new hive! Recently, Woodford County schools hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the new field. Woodford County Athletics is turning the page and looking ahead to the next chapter!
This new field will be home to primarily the track, lacrosse, soccer, and football teams. The first event hosted on the new turf field was the JV girls soccer game, followed by the Varsity team, where Woodford came away with two thrilling victories against Anderson County. The stadium gained attention from other programs like the middle School, junior varsity, and varsity Football teams, with the middle School and JV teams already hosting numerous games on the new field. In the springtime, we can expect to see the track team and both boys’ and girls’ lacrosse hosting events on the new field regularly.
This field boasts some fascinating features that elevate the playing experience for athletes, including state-of-the-art sound systems, lights, and a visual scoreboard. We asked student athlete Reese Allen, who has had the opportunity to operate this equipment, to explain what the new stadium is capable of. Allen elaborately explained, “Quite frankly, the stadium showcases extraordinary technology innovations, the most captivating of which, in my opinion, are the lighting systems. These lights are exclusively managed through a specialized mobile application accessible to a select few. Myself among them. The system offers a dazzling array of capabilities: I can alter the color palette at will, synchronize strobe patterns with music, and apply numerous other dynamic features to take the game atmosphere to an entirely new level.”
This stadium holds incredible capabilities, but as the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and this stadium certainly had some growing pains. Originally, the project was planned to be finished by April 2025; However, the stadium was not accessible to WCHS athletics until mid-September of 2025. Numerous problems occurred, postponing the official opening of the stadium. We asked Derrick Johnson, Head of Information and Technology for Woodford County Football, about some of the difficulties he’s faced during his time operating the stadium’s features. Johnson revealed, “The biggest problem was the construction side of things. The WIFI wasn’t right, the fiber optics cables weren’t right, and even the bleachers were poorly assembled. The lights were a difficult process to get on and off. On the easier side of issues, we couldn’t get a key, and when we finally did, it disappeared. Nobody had true access in the early stages. Overall, we had technological difficulties that shouldn’t have existed, slowing our progress to get to the point where we can comfortably host and operate this new facility.” Luckily, most of these problems have been resolved, allowing fans, staff, and players to enjoy the stadium to its fullest potential.
As the Jackets take the field in their new home, it marks more than just a location change. It’s a nod towards the bright future Woodford County Athletics holds. While there were some bumps in the road, the new stadium is currently up and running very adequately, already hosting numerous sporting events. Our community has invested time, money, and energy into this monumental project; now it’s time for the student-athletes to repay them by putting on a show every time the lights come on at 145 Schoolhouse Road.
