Houston County, Veterans officially have their new home

When Houston County players take to their new field on Friday night, it won’t really be new to all that many of them.

For months, scores of Bears — and more than a few Veterans Warhawks — have, well, snuck in to check out their new football home. And some have just walked in to run around.

Then they leave and resume battling great anticipation for when they finally get to have their own football facility.

It’s official. They now have their own football facility.

The figurative keys were turned over to the county on Aug. 17, and county education officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning

“August 17th is when the substantial completion was,” said Scott Hill, director of facilities for the Houston County Board of Education. “We’ve just been doing like punch list items since then.”

The ceremony came two days before the Bears break the seal on the stadium when they host Eagle’s Landing. Adding to the anticipation is that Friday’s game is homecoming.

On Sept. 9, the Warhawks and Bears will battle at Freedom Field in what will be as electric a night as either program has experienced.

“It’s beautiful, it’s a state of the art facility,” Houston County head coach Von Lassiter said. “I can’t wait to get in it.”

Of course, pretty much everybody from both teams has snuck in. The Bears went under the lights one recent morning, and the Warhawks practiced there one night last week.

“We won’t really talk about it until next week,” said Veterans head coach David Bruce, for when the Warhawks take on the Bears. “We weren’t playing a game, we were just practicing, but they were excited. It made it fun.”

Freedom Field sits at the corner of Bear Country Boulevard and Cohen Walker Drive, the main entry gate sitting about a half mile from Houston County’s primary practice field and about 7 1/2 miles from Veterans.

And the lights will be visible from Ga. 96, as well as Lake Joy Road, when making the turn onto Cohen Walker Drive. The view will be unobstructed from Houston Lake Road, as well. There are parking entrances on both Cohen Walker and Bear Country.

Project manager John Bennett played at and graduated from Houston County, and he was on the crew that built Veterans. To say Friday night is a big night for him is an understatement.

Bruce and the Warhawks have had to trek to Perry since beginning play in 2010, and while the distance isn’t very different, the feeling is.

“That was like playing 10 away games,” Bruce said. “It never felt like home. This does.”

Bruce has been working on Bennett’s allegiances.

"He said, 'I'm going to have mixed emotions,'" Bruce said. "I said, 'The heck with that, just jump on the dang Warhawk bandwagon and let's go.’ ”

That main entry gate faces a huge parking lot that will hold almost 1,500 vehicles, with entry access from Bear Country and Cohen Walker. In fact, there has been an entry point on Cohen Walker for several years, long before plans to put the stadium at that location were firmed up.

Hill said it appears that the project will come in under budget at just less than $12.1 million. Because of that, some things that were taken out of the original plans were put back in, like the ability to put sod around the stadium for immediate grass rather than seeding.

“In our original budget, we didn’t have a whole lot for landscaping as far as sod,” Hill said. “Based on how the budget came in, we were able to install grass around the stadium, and it made a huge difference on the finished product.”

Seating capacity for stadiums without chairback seating are based on a measurement for each seat. The GHSA’s established capacity for such facilities based on a 24-inch seat. That's about six inches wider than the average office desk chair, and an increase in the past 16 years from 18 inches.

The GHSA has requirements for minimal seating by classification to host playoff games, and that figure is 6,000 for Class 6A — which is where Houston County and Northside sit — and 4,000 for Class 5A — the spot for Veterans and Warner Robins.

Freedom Field's seating capacity, Hill said, is 6,102, based on that 24-inch equation. That doesn't include potential seating in a berm beyond the west end zone, near the main entry gate, as well as some potential seating on the other side, as well as on the sides of the stands on both sides.

There is also plenty of room behind the east end zone for temporary bleachers.

McConnell-Talbert's official capacity, based on the 24-inch equation, is about 100 seats more than Freedom Field, a figure that no doubt stuns those who have read about crowds for Northside and Warner Robins estimated at 15,000 or 20,000 and more on the grounds of a stadium they were led to believe sat 10,000 or so when that was never the case.

How many people actually saw one of the dozens and dozens of unforgettable games and hundreds of memorable players at McConnell-Talbert is, of course, not relevant in the discussion.

Hill said the National Fire Protection Association fire code, which includes entrances/exits in its equation, allows for about 8,200 people.

The reality is that both stadiums can comfortably seat about 7,500.

Freedom Field will have some natural advantages simply by being new, including the video board, and better planned, like the fieldhouse. Other aspects, like concessions and restrooms, can't help but be an upgrade by being new.

On the other hand, Houston County has reinvested a few million dollars in McConnell-Talbert the past few years, making it hard for most anybody to believe that it's actually a 48-year-old facility.

Hill said more than $2 million is headed toward Perry’s facility, to include a fieldhouse, redo the field to synthetic turf and perhaps a lighting upgrade.

Freedom Field is available for soccer, and it is just wide enough. Soccer fields must be at least 100 yards long and at least 55 yards wide, according to the National Federation of High Schools, while football fields are 53 1/3 yards wide.

Hill said neither high school has played soccer on the field yet, but he expects that to change, thanks in part to the synthetic turf and full dimensions.

“They have a hard time scheduling some of the teams from Atlanta because the fields that we have at the high schools are smaller,” Hill said. “They don’t want to play on smaller fields.”

An added “ooh and ahh” is the plan to fully illuminate the colorful water tower to the northwest of the stadium. That’s expected to take effect in October.

Hill has been in the facility dozens of times, but has yet to take that one solitary, untimed tour. He and his wife were going to quietly visit recently, on their anniversary.

“They were loading concessions, and we drove up,” he said. “There were like 50 cars there, so we didn’t go.”

The stadium will be loaded up pretty early Friday night with fans wanting to walk around long before the Bears and Golden Eagles kick off.

“It’s good to finally have a field with our name in it,” said Houston County senior quarterback Jake Fromm, echoing a popular sentiment for both schools. “Honestly, I never thought I’d really see this day where I got to play in my own stadium, with ‘Houston County’ on it.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Houston County, Veterans officially have their new home."