SWAMPSCOTT — Swampscott is set to debut a new addition to its football legacy as the long-awaited lights for Blocksidge Field near completion.
“It’s been such a long time coming,” said Gino Cresta, director of Public Works. “All these other communities have a turf field and have lights, so it just seems like we were way behind the times. It’s probably something that should have happened years ago.”
At the beginning of 2016, town officials laid out a multi-phase plan for the football field, said Cresta. Last September, the first phase was completed with the building of the grandstand and opening of the turf field. The second phase, putting up the $300,000 field lights, is set to be finished, it is hoped, by Nov. 23.
Cresta said one of the biggest factors in the town not going forward with this years ago is that those kind of lights are only beneficial on a turf field.
Cresta said the money, raised from private funding, was secured back in May. The lights cost $205,000 and the leftover $95,000 was for the electrician to power the lights by bringing electricity in from Humphrey Street to a new transformer, he said.
After the funding was secured, the town purchased the lights from Musco Sports Lighting and by August they put the electrical work out to bid, choosing Island Lighting & Power System, said Cresta. The lights were delivered on Halloween and the electrical crews started work Nov. 5.
“People are so excited,” said Cresta. “My phone, since the first two lights went up, has been non-stop with people telling me how excited they are.”
Generations of Swampscott football teams have played their games on Saturday afternoons, said Cresta. In the last 15 years, most of the other football teams in the Northeast Conference have transitioned to playing Friday night games, making Swampscott the odd ones out.
Cresta said, aside from giving the team the opportunity to practice more and take part in the evening games, the new installation is going to bring the community together. He believes this will have more Swampscott students, and residents, showing up for Friday night games.
“It just brings the community together because it will be more of an event as opposed to just a game,” he said. “When most of them are on Saturday afternoons, people are busy and there are so many other youth activities going on. When they play at nighttime, it’s going to give more people the opportunity to go to the games.”
While the majority of the town is excited for “Big Blue’s” next chapter, not everyone is ecstatic over the game schedule switch. Swampscott High School’s football coach, Bobby Serino, said he is not too fired up about playing on Friday nights.
“I’d love to keep my games on Saturday afternoons and keep all the old timers at the games, but I’m a lot happier that it’s going to open more practices and times for other sports,” said Serino. “There were many people that carried this project through and they stuck with it from beginning to end. When you drive up for practice you’re amazed because you never thought it was going to happen.”
The coach may not be excited for the change, but he said he does recognize both the town and his team are. On Saturday, Serino led his team to the Division 5 North championship with a 34-26 victory over Amesbury.
While the lights are a big step forward for the town’s football team, that is not going to be their only purpose. Cresta said Blocksidge is now going to be a multi-purpose field, opening the turf for boys and girls soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse teams, for both the high school and the youth organizations.
“I’m very excited to have this phase of the project over because now it’s time to move on to the next phase of the Blocksidge Field project,” said Cresta. “We’re looking to install a new concession stand with bathrooms at the rear of the field. We need more fundraising but, ideally, we would be starting this next spring.”
