School board vs. scoreboard
McLean advocates passage of groundbreaking naming rights proposal Jackson Payne Reporter
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n 1989, McLean installed three new, stateof-the-art scoreboards for the school’s football, baseball and softball fields. Nearly 30 years later, the same scoreboards still stand, although they are barely operational. “Every Friday night before a football game, I have to cross my fingers hoping that the scoreboard will come on,” Director of Student Activities Greg Miller said. Replacement parts for the scoreboards no longer exist, leading the McLean Athletic Boosters to launch an effort this past April to raise funds for new boards through a sponsorship deal with local plumbing, heating and air specialists F.H. Furr. “F.H. Furr has been a sponsor of McLean athletics for years, and they’re willing to give us $25,000 a year for the next 10 years for the naming rights to our stadium,” Miller said, “and over the next 10 years [they] will allow our boosters club to take out a loan and purchase three brand new scoreboards—one for the stadium, and one for both baseball and softball.” The field, currently named in honor of former McLean basketball coach Basil Harless, who tragically drowned while saving a player’s life on a team boating trip in 1963, would be renamed Basil Harless Memorial Stadium at F.H. Furr Sportsplex.
“Every Friday night before a football game, I have to cross my fingers hoping that the scoreboard will come on.” -Greg Miller, Director of Student Activities “F.H. Furr has a foundation called F.H. Furr Cares, and they believe strongly in giving back to the community,” said Glenn Goldenhorn, boosters chairman of corporate sponsorships. “They were aware that students at McLean excel in many different areas, so when they wanted to choose a school from Fairfax County to focus their energies on, McLean was very appealing to them.” FEBRUARY
Furr the Love of the Game — An artist’s rendering of the proposed
scoreboard for McLean’s football field. The softball and baseball fields would also receive new scoreboards if the naming rights proposal is approved by the school board. (Image used with expressed written consent of Daktronics)
F.H. Furr made a similar naming rights deal with Stone Bridge High School this past fall, which was unanimously approved by the Loudoun County School Board. The Fairfax County school board must also vote on McLean’s deal. The vote, originally scheduled for the board’s meeting on Jan. 26, was a late scratch from the agenda, but Miller, Goldenhorn and boosters president Jeff Grammes were still granted time to speak at the meeting to lobby for their cause. “We only had three minutes to speak so it was challenging to articulate everything I hoped to say in such a short amount of time, but we got a lot of positive feedback from some people on the school board,” Miller said. “Our hope is that we just educated the board a little more on why we need these scoreboards and the process we have to go through.” A new video board for the football field would be able to generate revenue for the athletics department and hopefully pay for itself by running advertisements during games and encouraging more fans to attend games to see the new board in action.
“[A new scoreboard] will create a great atmosphere for each game and make things more exciting for the fans,” said sophomore quarterback Logan Johnson, “and hopefully next year our team will be able to put up points on a new scoreboard.” The Jan. 26 vote’s postponement was no accident—the board is taking extra time to discuss a possible equity split that could take place should they approve the deal. “An equity split is definitely being discussed,” Goldenhorn said, “but we aren’t sure if the money taken from us would just be kept by the county or distributed to all of the other schools in the county. As of now, everything is arbitrary.” Despite the looming possibility of having thousands of dollars taken away from McLean by the school board, Goldenhorn is optimistic about the future of the deal. “The booster club of McLean is going to go to bat for these students because the student body here means the world to us,” Goldenhorn said, “and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that the Highlanders get what they’re entitled to.” Page design by Jackson Payne
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