SJ Sports: Hit the Bricks

Boosters Help Eastern Stadium Get Facelift A touch of big-time college football came to Voorhees Township this fall. A beautification project for the Eastern High School football stadium has helped give the campus a sharp new look.

The football boosters at Eastern Regional High School got a lesson in masonry this past summer as they spent their free time on the weekends constructing a new walkway at the stadium entrance, all of it done in two colors of brick.

The walkway extends from the ticket window to the gates of the stadium and replaces a “patchy” area of the stadium that became a quagmire every time a decent rain came through the area.

In the middle of the walkway, in front of the gate, is a group of darker-shaded bricks, which are laid out to form a ‘V.’ The ‘V’ stands for Vikings, the school’s sports nickname.

Parent Carey Monaghan got the idea for the walkway after his own high school in Illinois began a similar project some years back. The walkways are very similar to those built around the University of Michigan stadium, nicknamed the “Big House” and Florida State’s Doak Walker Stadium.

“The old entrance was part patchy concrete, part scrub grass and dirt,” Monaghan said. “The kids liked to congregate there and when it got wet it was real muddy.”

With that in mind, Monaghan and the boosters went to work. Monaghan enlisted the help of local architect Ron Faul and designed the walkway and helped get the parents started with the building process.

“He functioned as a general contractor basically,” Monaghan said. “He did the design work. Laid it out. Calculated the materials. He stayed on through the summer. It would not have gotten done without him. He’s not even a booster.”

The project, which the booster club is turning into a fundraiser for the football team, began just after July 4. Monaghan estimated that there were 6-10 people each Saturday and Sunday working for about eight hours.

“It was an incredible amount of work,” Monaghan said. “Football players, dads. They all helped. It was the first time I understood why people work construction all day stop at 3 p.m. You are exhausted. It was terribly hot but the moms kept us fed and gave us fluids.”

Now the club is hoping that its efforts will pay off as a fund raising drive has begun in hopes that the club can recoup the cost of the bricks and raise money for the Vikings.

The community has the opportunity to purchase bricks for the walkway and have the bricks engraved with a personal message, high school memory or a family name among several other possibilities.

The bricks come in three sizes and varying costs. The smallest is a 4-by-8 inch brick ($50), an 8-by-8 ($100) and the largest, an 8-by-16 ($150).

The club used about 10,000 bricks to construct the walkway and Monaghan says that 200-300 bricks will have to be sold in order for the club to break even. The club realizes however that this fundraiser is one that will be ongoing.

“Once we sell 200 or 300 bricks we’ll start making money,” said Monaghan, who has two sons on the football team. “It will be ongoing for years. Not only for past classes but for future classes as well.”

Monaghan says that he has notices changes in the atmosphere at the stadium during this, the walkways first year.

For one, the Vikings used to enter the stadium on the far side of the field. Since the walkway was built, they have begun coming in through the gates in front of the new bricks.

“The team stands outside by the ‘V,’” Monaghan said. “The fans are there now. They part and make a tunnel for them and they run through it.

“My two sons tell me they love it. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from alumni, parents, members of the band, everyone.”

Recently forms have been mailed out to the class of 2002. Purchase forms can also be found on the school’s web site: www.eastern.k12.nj.us. Interested buyers may also call Monaghan at 856-751-9092.

Content provided by South Jersey Sports Club.

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Author: SJ Sports Club-Dan Welsh