Illuminated Eagles know the score

Nick Christensen

Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 | 9:38 a.m.

When the Boulder City High football team took the field Friday night, they ran through a giant inflatable eagle at the north end of Bruce Eaton Field.

But more than a few eyes were turned the other direction, and not just those that made the 80-mile trek from Moapa Valley to cheer on the Pirates.

At the far south end of the stadium, a new $80,000 scoreboard, complete with video screen, was making its official debut.

Easily the Best Dam Scoreboard in Nevada, Boulder City's new scoreboard came after months of hard work and fundraising by the school's booster club.

At Friday's game, the scoreboard displayed advertisements, pictures of players and highlights from earlier in the season.

"We worked hard at running concession stands, we had a barbecue at every game, a couple of other fundraisers," booster club volunteer Torri Haney said. "We started seeing that we were really accomplishing some goals and sought out a donor."

The booster club immediately turned to Henderson Chevrolet, and both saw eye-to-eye that a donation would be mutually beneficial.

"We presented it to them as an advertising option and a donation at the same time to a very captive bunch of people who were ready to buy cars, and they said yes," Haney said.

Yes, to the tune of a donation of 60,000 dollars. The remainder of the cost of the scoreboard went to hiring a professional installation crew that was aided by volunteers.

After a soft-launch in the Eagles' opener against Mohave High from Bullhead City, the scoreboard made its successful debut Friday night.

"I think we really have high community involvement in every sport and we also have tremendous financial support here," Eagles football coach Jeff Knutson said. "I think all our facilities and our equipment for a 3A school in every sport's of a pretty high caliber -- including that scoreboard. We are just thrilled about that."

According to Haney, the booster group has also brought together funds for a new reader board in the school's gym, a new scoreboard for soccer and softball, a new record board for track and several donations to clubs and scholarships.