Calvert Hall will have its own Friday night lights
Calvert Hall's Adrian Amos (center) gains yardage during in the second quarter of a Friday night game against Gilman at Paul Angelo Russo Stadium on October 8, 2010. That game was lit by temporary lights. (Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)
Calvert Hall plans to have permanent lights in place at Paul Angelo Russo Stadium for the start of this fall's football and soccer seasons.
Calvert Hall installed temporary lights last fall to gauge how well they would be received by the school, alumni and surrounding community. It was deemed a resounding success when more than 4,000 fans turned out for the school’s first-ever Friday night home football game Oct. 9 against then top-ranked Gilman.
The lights could also represent a shift in the football schedule for the Marylalnd Interscholastic Athletic Association, which has traditionally played games on Saturday afternoon. Calvert Hall joins Archbishop Spalding as the only schools that compete in the MIAA A conference in both football and soccer that have permanent lights at their stadiums.
The Cardinals are scheduled to play four 7 p.m. home football games this season -- Sept. 16 against Red Lion Christian of Delaware, Oct. 14 against Georgetown Prep, Oct. 21 against Spalding and Nov. 4 against Mount St. Joseph.
Georgetown Prep, which competes in the MIAA A conference for just football, plays all of its home games on Fridays at 6:30 p.m.
St. Mary’s also has permanent lights, but the Saints compete in the B conference for football and soccer. St. Mary’s hosts night lacrosse game as members of the A conference. John Carroll also has night games for its B conference football games, but not for A conference soccer.
The Cardinals hosted their first night soccer game in 2009, an MIAA playoff game against Mount St. Joseph, which drew an estimated 1,000 spectators. Calvert Hall also lost to Loyola in the conference quarterfinals under the lights this past fall.
Calvert Hall will also have permanent lights at Carlo Crispino Baseball Stadium installed by the beginning of this school year.
-- By Todd Karpovich
Comments
Recall when CHC didn't even play home games as our "field" was a concrete courtyard on Mulberry St. Football practice was at Herring Run Park. They've come a long way since 1959, but those were happy days despite the lack of facilities.
Posted by: Jack W CHC '62 | July 24, 2011 8:59 AM