Holliday lights up athletic complex to brighten outlook amidst COVID-19 pandemic

For the next few weeks, Holliday’s football stadium will be a shining beacon of hope in an otherwise uncertain world.

At least that’s what the Eagles coach, Frank Johnson is hoping. On Wednesday night, he announced that the school would turn on the stadium’s lights for one hour each night as it tries to spread hope and optimism during the coronavirus pandemic.

“You’re trying to give the kids hope that we’ll get back to normal before school’s out and we’ll get a chance to finish [spring sports],” Johnson said. 

Holliday is not the first school across the state to light up its stadium. The trend started in the Panhandle, at Dumas, with principal Brett Beesley. He told PressPassSports.com’s Kale Steed that the stadium appeared dark and gloomy, and he wanted to change that. He called Dumas’ head coach Aaron Dunham with his idea of turning on the lights for one hour each day, and Dunham agreed.

On Tuesday night, the school turned on its lights. Beesley took a picture and posted it on Twitter, challenging other schools across the state to follow suit.

Johnson saw the post Wednesday night and called his superintendent, Kevin Dyes, who had seen it too.

“We met [Wednesday] afternoon and decided we’d join in on it,” Johnson said.

Other schools followed suit. Since the initial tweet was posted, dozens of schools have replied with pictures of their stadium lights glowing, illuminating the Texas sky.

For one hour a night, that sky is lit up across the state, from the Rio Grande Valley to the top of the Panhandle; from the deserts of West Texas to the plains of the Coastal Bend.

How long will it last? Right now, the answer isn’t that clear. Many of the schools, including Holliday, have said that they will do it until school is back in session, or the University Interscholastic League ends its moratorium on athletic events across the state.

That moratorium was set to end on March 31, but the UIL pushed the start date back to May 4 on March 19. With the start date set that late, sports like baseball, golf, softball, track and field and soccer have all had their seasons interrupted.

Sports aren’t the only part of high school life that’s affected. Many schools have canceled their proms, baccalaureates and graduations due to the virus. Across the state, life has been put on hold.

Johnson has kept in contact with some of his graduating seniors. He says he feels like they’re the grade that’s lost the most with scholastic activities suspended.

“[They’re] going to miss their prom and they may not have an actual graduation,” he said. “That would bother me if I was a senior in high school. I’d be worried about it.”

Wednesday night, Johnson received a few phone calls from members of the community, telling him that someone had flipped the lights on. He said he laughed and explained the reasoning to them, that he was trying to give Holliday a glimmer of hope.

The phone calls will stop, but Johnson will continue to drive his 1977 Trans Am to the high school each night, with ‘80s music blaring the entire length of the five-minute drive. With so much changing, Johnson wants his kids to know that in small-town Texas, there’s one thing that remains constant—the stadium lights shining down, visible for miles across the plains of Archer County.

Though they will illuminate an empty playing field, they’ll still serve a vital role for the people of Holliday, promising that things will return to normal once this all comes to an end. 

“With some of the kids, things aren’t going great," Johnson said. "They’re trying to make money to live on, and a lot of people are kind of losing jobs and what not. [We are trying] to give them hope in a weird time.”