As the Scotts Valley Falcons open their league schedule against Santa Cruz this week, visiting Cardinal fans might notice a touch of home: The bleachers they’ll sit on were theirs just a few weeks ago.
Scotts Valley’s reputation for successful sports programs, despite sometimes woeful facilities, is known throughout the county. So when Santa Cruz High began installing a new artificial-turf field and stadium, officials called to see if the Falcons wanted the Santa Cruz bleachers that were destined for the scrapyard.
The locals immediately said yes, but then came the hard part — how to disassemble, transport and re-erect several tons of bleachers for more than 1,000 people in time for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Friday, Oct. 9.
That’s when Falcon Club President Kelly Weaver stepped in. She recruited her father, Doug Wright, to spearhead the disassembly, and convinced Dene Bustichi, whose construction firm is overhauling Santa Cruz High’s facilities, to donate use of his forklifts and other equipment to load and transport the components.
Then Wright, Mike Smith, Kelly’s husband Mike Weaver and Neal Frost led a volunteer effort that contributed more than 400 hours of welding, drilling, pressure-washing, re-painting, bolting and the like to get the seats ready for the visitors’ sideline tonight.
“To be honest, they’re better than the bleachers we have on the home side,” Weaver said, noting that the longer and higher bleachers from Santa Cruz have steel I-beams, compared with the nine all-aluminum units on the Falcons fans’ side of the field. “It’s nice that we’ll have enough seats for visiting fans now.”
The bleacher project is the second Falcon Club-sponsored upgrade within a year, following the opening of the Falcon Arena, an artificial turf field with sideboards created with largely scavenged materials and volunteer labor
The improvements are just a few of the activities the club has spearheaded to make the school’s sports contests, especially nighttime football games, into community-wide “Friday Night Lights”-style events.
In addition to the bleachers, new amenities this week will include food and drinks from Santa Cruz Pizza Co. and Surf City Coffee. Proceeds will go to the club.
The group will be busy the next two weekends, as well, with the Friday-night homecoming game Oct. 16 against Harbor High, a poker tournament Oct. 17, and a dinner honoring the first inductees into the Falcon Hall of Fame on Oct. 24.
Friday on the field
Scotts Valley (2-2) hopes to open its Santa Cruz County Athletic League schedule right against struggling Santa Cruz, which is off to a 1-4 start after losing its SCCAL opener to Soquel last week, 28-21.
Santa Cruz is considered to have the largest offensive line in the league, and it was effective despite the loss last week in protecting senior quarterback Peter Miller en route to a 14-for-22, 255-yard performance. Miller will look to a trio of favorite receivers in Ben Damon, Miguel Nunez and 6-foot-7 Daoud Anthony; Nunez and Anthony combined to haul in three touchdowns from Miller last week.
The Falcons, for their part, are quietly confident that their tough preseason schedule has them tuned up for league play.
“We’re not taking anything for granted in the SCCAL,” quarterback Blake Jurich said, “(but) we won’t be playing another team like Valley Christian.”
