Improvements at McCracken Field in the works

McHenry’s McCracken Field will be brighter, cleaner and drier when the Warriors are scheduled to start their football season in August.

In its most recent meeting, the McHenry High School District 156 Board approved renovations that would correct drainage problems around the outside of the off-campus field and pave walkways around the home bleachers. In its next meeting, the board plans to approve putting in new lights.

Replacing the lights will be the most costly part of the renovations and was one the district initially targeted for 2021. But McHenry athletic director Barry Burmeister said bulbs were burning out too quickly, and the system, which was old, had become a safety concern.

“The poles are 50 or 60 years old,” Burmeister said. “We changed all the bulbs before last season, and because of the age of the infrastructure a lot of them have burned out already. The other night for our ‘Rise Up, Light Up’ two of our poles didn’t even come on.”

The first part of the project was to help with drainage around the field and pave the walkways, which currently are covered with crushed rocks. That part will cost about $163,000.

There were concerns about stability of the light poles and electronic shorts because of standing water. The lighting conditions became a higher priority than the board originally thought.

The bids ranged from $300,000 to
$1 million. Burmeister said that, instead of eight light standards, the new plan will have four, two on each side. The lights can be turned on from the press box by an iPad, which also can flash the lights for Warriors scoring plays.

Burmeister said the contract with Musco Sports Lighting should be approved at the next board meeting.

“Right now, to turn our lights on, you have to go to each individual pole,” Burmeister said. “When we started talking and looking at our lights, it just made sense to do the lights this summer as well.”

Burmeister mentioned there are other improvements on the list for down the road, but he is excited about what McCracken will have this fall.

“There’s talk about a wish list. What would we do? What do we want to do?” Burmeister said. “You always want to make improvements to have the best facilities you can have, but all of that takes money and hard decisions.”