ACE has a field, but the varsity football team can’t play games on it

Bibb County’s newest school, Academy for Classical Education, has a field on its campus that can serve all the teams in its football program except the one it was primarily built for.

ACE’s varsity team had hoped to play a handful of the 10 games in its first competitive season on the field in its own backyard. But anticipated funding from a Bibb County education special purpose local option sales tax for installation of lights didn’t materialize this summer, so the Gryphons are playing on the home turf of other Bibb County schools.

“We had big plans for ‘Friday night lights’ in our backyard,” ACE coach Jason Stephens said earlier this week following a workout in preparation for Friday’s game against Georgia Military.

Josh McLendon, ACE athletics director, said the school had dotted i’s and crossed t’s all along the process of attempting to secure the funding from Bibb County schools. It obtained a variety of bids for lighting not only the school’s football field but also its baseball and softball complex.

“We were to the finish line on everything,” said McLendon, a former multi-sport athlete at Central Fellowship Christian Academy who coaches baseball and softball.

In the end, however, the money from the tax levy didn’t come, in part because ESPLOST funds must go for items that can be removed from the site for use elsewhere, McLendon said. He said there was a special meeting held to discuss that specific question, and the school believed any issues about the lighting had been satisfied.

“I think at the last minute (the district) got some advice that maybe (lights) weren’t a good idea in this case even though they could be dug up with some work, so it didn’t go through,” McLendon said.

Keith Simmons, chief of staff for Bibb County schools, said granting the funding request for ACE would have created a precedent for the district since none of its other schools have lighted fields on their campuses for use solely by teams at that school.

Although the Ed Defore Sports Complex is located at Westside High School and Thompson Stadium is on the campus of Appling Middle School, both facilities are used by multiple schools in the district.

“It was an equity issue for all our students and student-athletes,” Simmons said. “Since none of the other schools have field lights it was difficult to provide them in this situation.”

ACE was, however, awarded money to purchase the aluminum bleachers that rest on each sideline of the field. Other than lights, the football field is fully functional, courtesy of school fundraising efforts and donations of money and labor.

The facility has a immaculate surface of sodded Bermuda grass that has just the slightest crown to aid drainage. There’s an electronic scoreboard and standard goalposts, and the bleachers will accommodate a bit more than 1,000 spectators total.

A lack of lights doesn’t impact the youth, middle school or junior varsity teams in the program. Those teams traditionally play during the day, so the field is getting extensive use.

It’s a different story for varsity, which is a key revenue producer for the school’s entire athletic program. The team does practice on the field.

“We considered Saturday (games), so we could play here,” Stephens said. “But that’s traditionally for colleges, and we felt that would impact our potential for revenue.

“The other programs get to play here, so it’s bittersweet. The ACE community still gets to have football on its field, just not what we’d anticipated.”

After a small measure of disappointment, the players have returned their thoughts to just being able to play at the varsity level regardless of the site. The Gryphons played a junior varsity schedule last year, mostly on the road.

“We never really played too many home games, so we haven’t built a dependency on that to start with,” said center Cole Bryant, one of only three seniors on the 36-player team covering all four classes. “It would’ve been nice to play here, but I feel lucky to just be playing. Right now, that’s our focus no matter where we’re playing.”

After starting the season with two away games, the Gryphons (1-2) played the first of their six “home” games a week ago at Thompson Stadium. Thompson serves as Northeast’s home field.

ACE fell to Lamar County, 48-3, in that game and returns to Thompson at 7:30 p.m. Friday to face GMC. The Class A Gryphons have another game at Thompson at the end of the month with the other three being played at Ed Defore Sports Complex.

Stephens, a standout tight end who graduated from Westside in 2007 and played collegiately at Miles College, said not learning until the summer that it would need another site for home games caused some logistical problems. He said the school was able to overcome those with cooperation from the school district and opponents.

The Gryphons were able to eliminate Henderson Stadium from the venue mix, so they only had to deal with games at two places. Save one week — Sept. 20 against Pataula Charter Academy — all ACE’s games also are on Friday.

ACE has to pay for the clean-up when playing elsewhere in town, just like the other schools, but gets to keep revenue from concessions and parking.

“We’re just looking at a smaller pot (of funds) than we’d anticipated,” Stephens said. “We’ll adjust like we have in the past and look forward to the time we’ll be out back.”

Both the athletics director and football coach said the school will follow other avenues, those that it has traveled in the past and new ones, in an effort to secure funds for lights. The two would love to open the season under the lights on campus next season, but if not then, hopefully the year after.

Bryant is confident it will happen before his youngest teammates graduate.

“I’m just glad some players on this team will have that experience,” he said. “I know it’ll happen for them.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the expenses ACE incurs when playing at one of the county’s stadiums. ACE pays only clean-up fees, as do the other schools that use the facilities.

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 5:02 PM with the headline "ACE has a field, but the varsity football team can’t play games on it."