AKRON, Ohio — During a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, St. Vincent-St. Mary unveiled the newly enhanced VanDevere Automotive Family Stadium.
“I mean it just felt amazing, and I’m very relieved and very happy,” said James Meyer. “I’m very thankful that we have this new field.”
Before crews installed the new turf at the high school’s stadium, James Meyer, who plays football and lacrosse, said the old field was in rough shape.
“There were like parts of the field that were kind of like really hard and whenever you run over them, you tripped,” said Meyer.
Even high school President Dave Vitatoe said he could tell the field was starting to wear down.
“About two years ago, we really realized we needed to at least replace the turf in our stadium. It was past due, so we started to kind of think about how do we get that done. But then it changed to what more can we do,” said Vitatoe.
With a vision in mind, Vitatoe said the school saw an opportunity to replace the turf, invest in a new digital scoreboard, entrance and plaza.
They even re-named the field to the VanDevere Automotive Family Stadium.
“If you look at our campus, we’re flanked by different VanDevere auto dealerships, and the family is a legacy family at St. Vincent – St. Mary,” said Vitatoe.
Now, Jerry VanDevere said his family’s legacy will live on in a special way.
“We’re really grateful (for) the impact that school has had on our family. We’ve had three generations. Over 30 people in our family have gone to school here. Really, St. V’s had a huge impact on our family, so we’re strong believers in faithful, Catholic education,” said VanDevere.
Vitatoe said there’s a second phase of the project which will include transforming the field house and restrooms.
