Bureau Valley volleyball fans were treated to the new video scoreboards at the Storm Cellar this week.

There are two new video boards at the Storm Cellar, a larger video board on the East end with a smaller one on the West end by the entrance. There is also a smaller board in the junior high’s Storm Gym.

The in-game scorekeeping comes with interactive displays. The graphics and terminology are event-specific, including the use of “ace,” “block,” and “spike” for volleyball.

During breaks in the game, team and individual photos are displayed along with the weekly BV activities calendar.

Bureau Valley is utilizing students to make the graphics and displays in a digital club, study halls and homeroom, along with BV tech Ryan Carlson and AD Phillip Przybyla.

“It’s student-driven content so make themselves marketable whether it’s college or career. Those are skills companies are looking for and pay good money for,” BV Superintendent Jason Stabler said.

In addition to athletic events, the video boards will be utilized during PE classes, school ceremonies and other activities.

“The scoreboards are something above and beyond and gives our kids a great experience to see themselves up there. It’s been fun to watch their expressions as they see different things,” Stabler said. “The goal is to start slow and continue to grow our programming on there. We wanted to elevate our social media posts. We think we do a good job broadcasting it out on other platforms. We just wanted take it to a new level when we’re in-house as well.”

BV senior volleyballer Emily Wright said the video boards are amazing.

“I am so excited to start using them more. It’s definitely something we had to get used to, but to have the ability to put so much fun stuff on them is really nice,” she said. “They are definitely going to get some great use and I can tell everyone is already having a lot of fun with them. We’ve already used it a lot outside of sports, like today we used it for FCA which was really cool.”

The video boards were sponsored by Central Bank, TCI, Marquis Energy and the BV Sports Boosters at a cost of approximately $130,000 for both gyms.

“We were super fortunate the Boosters were able to partner with Central, TCI and Marquis to come together and outfit both of those gyms with video boards,” Stabler said.

Bureau Valley has also got ahead of the game and installed shot clocks for basketball, which will be implemented in Illinois beginning with the 2026-27 season, for both gyms at a cost of about $10,000 to the school.

Stabler said BV would like to experiment with the shot clocks this upcoming season in nonconference games and their JV girls tournament.

Bureau Valley is making plans for an additional gym on the East side of the school. The new gym will provide Manlius Elementary students with space for indoor recess during inclement weather and additional practice space for sports teams.