High Heat, Downed Lights Just Challenges to Overcome for Season

Crofton’s football field was featured on News Channel Nebraska this week as school officials dealt with a light tower at the field that had toppled over onto the field following what was reported as heavy winds.

From the NCN report:
When a football team is doing poorly, for their fanbase it can sometimes feel like the sky is falling.

But for one northeast Nebraska school, their football team is doing well despite objects literally falling from the sky.

A light tower at Crofton's football field was blown over by wind last week. Thankfully, no one was on the field at the time, but the toppled tower created a logistical nightmare as the Warriors prepared for their first game of the season.

"It got crazy from then on out," said Crofton football coach Tom Allen. "There was idea after idea. When you're me it seems simple, but it wasn't simple. You had to get a lot of professionals involved, and the different scenarios and ideas they had,"

Crofton's football team already had to adjust practices multiple times due to heat. Now they had to move practice to the neighboring softball field while district officials worked to get the field usable again.

"They did the best they could," Allen said. "My hat's off to them for even getting us a home game, period. There was some doubt for quite a while that we would even get to play."
Crofton was able to play their Friday home opener against Summerland, but they had to move the start time by two hours to avoid playing in darkness. The team appears to have taken all this change in stride. They beat the Bobcats 50-36.

"We've had probably three weeks of disarray," said Allen. "You worry about your kids adapting to that as a coach. Obviously, they did a good job. We won the game Friday night. My hat's off to them. They made adjustments. We all had to make adjustments, and it all worked out." 
The other three light towers at the field have had supports added to them, the fourth tower has already arrived. 

Crofton Activities Director Ann Kramer says they are now waiting on halogen lamps to show up, hopefully in time for Crofton's next home game on September 15th.