By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Let there be light! The Otter Valley Football Club (OVFC) realized a longstanding dream this past weekend: lights on Markowski Field at OVUHS. Over 70 feet tall, the four new light poles tower over the school building and are visible to drivers passing by on Route 7 and will be put to use for the first time at a night game against Rice Memorial High School on Saturday, September 7 at 7 p.m.
It’s not the first time Markowski Field has been illuminated, though. According to Nate and Kate McKay of OVFC, for six years the club used drive to Fort Ann, NY to rent portable, generator-powered lights for night games.
“Those were always the best attended games,” said Nate. “A day game might have 400 or 500 people, but a night game would bring in 1,200 to 1,500.”
“The energy was different at night games, too,” Kate added. “You could feel the difference on the field and in the stands. The enthusiasm was through the roof.”
And since the drive to Fort Ann was a hassle, the club would keep the lights for a week at a time, breaking them down and setting them up on the various fields at OV so other teams could take advantage of them. All in all, they estimate that they spent 60 to 80 hours dealing with those portable lights every week they had them.
And then the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), which oversees school athletic programs in the state, told OVFC that if OVUHS did not allow permanent lights, then portable lights were not permissible either.
At that point, the club began its quest for permanent lights in earnest.
“We were ready to go to the administration to authorize a fundraising campaign in 2022,” said Nate. But, as luck would have it, that administration—Superintendent Jeanne Collins and OVUHS Principal Jim Avery—was on the verge of retirement and advised OVFC to wait until their successors were in place to make the request.
“They didn’t think they should be the ones authorizing the campaign since they were about to leave,” said Nate.
Fortunately for OVFC, the incoming administration—Superintendent Kristin Hubert and OVUHS Principal Michael Ruppel—gave the club the green light in October of 2023.
It helped that OVFC had already their homework. They had researched the lights to decide which companies were the best. They had tested the field to make sure the soil could support the weight of the lights (10,000 lbs. apiece). They had gotten assurances of in-kind donations for the physical labor of the installation from local contractors.
“We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row before we went out and asked anyone for money,” said Nate. “Naylor & Breen and Markowski were on board from the start. Greg Markowski said, ‘Our name is on the field. We’ll do whatever it takes to make this happen.’”
OVFC had to raise $160,000 just for the lights themselves. They ultimately raised $200,000.
“The community has been great,” said Kate. “No taxpayer money went into this at all.” OVFC was able to reach its fundraising goal through donations from local residents and businesses and from grants via the Burditt Fund in Pittsford and the Trustees of Public Funds in Brandon.
Though there were bureaucratic and administrative hurdles along the way—OVFC raised the money privately but had to abide by the same procurement regulations that apply to OV generally—they were able to take delivery of the lights a few weeks ago.
The site work and installation were donated by Naylor & Breen, Markowski, Benoit Electric, Black Diamond, and Black Bear, among others. A full list of all donors will appear on a sign at the field.
Tanner Romano of Naylor & Breen estimated that the cost of the project would’ve been $350,000 if OVFC had had to pay retail for everything.
The installation took place starting at 7 a.m. on Friday, August 30. Romano and his crew were on site, along with electrician Tim Brutkoski of Benoit Electric. A crane hoisted the 80-foot light poles until they were completely plumb and then the ground crew slid them into the pits that had been excavated by Markowski.
The task was made much easier by the great foresight to install electrical conduits along the sidelines when the field was first created in 2007. That work had been done by CEA, Inc., the electrical contractor owned by Pittsford-Proctor State Rep. Butch Shaw.
On Friday evening, the new lights were switched on for the first time, ushering in a new era of night events at OV.
“The field won’t just be for football,” said Nate. “Soccer and lacrosse will use it, too. It can be used for school events. Anything that needs to happen at night.”
The lights can be adjusted and there will likely be a need for someone to get back up in a lift to fine tune the direction of some of the individual fixtures. But the lights are under warranty for 15 years, so OVFC and OVUHS will be covered if anything more significant needs to be addressed.
Even if you’re not a football fan and have no plans to attend the game on Saturday, it’ll be worth it to drive past OV that night just to see the lights ablaze above the school, testament to the hard work and determination of OVFC and the generosity of all the donors who made it happen.
