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Scoreboard tallies spirit, dedication, volunteerism
If you focus only on the scoreboard, sports can seem to just be about winning and losing.
However, if you focus on the new scoreboard at the South Putnam Youth League football field behind Central Elementary, or the four new baseball or softball scoreboards at the Belle Union diamonds, it’s readily apparent there’s more to it than that.
Like dedication, spirit, support and volunteerism for starters.
For without the efforts of the IBEW -- members of Local Union 481 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- the scoreboard project that was completed on a recent 90-degree afternoon never would have happened.
The scoreboard was installed by Mike Phillips of IBEW and Sun Electric and fellow IBEW member Chris Trammell, along with a number of South Putnam volunteers, including Mike Switzer, Casey Harris, Damon Cox and Josh Foxx, who gave up their Fourth of July morning and sweltering early afternoon to put the finishing touches on the scoreboard at Central Elementary.
Parents and players alike will be grateful to now have easy visual confirmation of the score of the game, which previously had been kept by flip cards along the sidelines, along with the time, which has been kept by officials on the field.
A host of community business donations augmented the IBEW efforts.
Bowen Engineering provided all the steel, while 3-D Pro set all the steel in one day, Phillips noted.
Reelsville Excavating donated all the trenching work for the new scoreboards, while Cash Concrete, appropriately enough, provided all the concrete.
Sun Electrical and All-Phase Electric contributed the necessary electrical components, while 12 Point Telecom donated wire and speakers, so all the fields will have speaker systems to make announcements during the games.
The volunteers put the finishing touches on the scoreboard electronics prior to posing for a commemorative photo of the event, attempting to set the numbers to spell out 481 in recognition of the IBEW Union.
However, realizing that the scoreboard clock won’t show a number 8 in what would be the minute column that only goes to 6, the group called an audible, putting the 4 under the home team score, the 8 in the quarter box, and a 1 in the visitors’ score box, spreading the 481 designation across the board.
That idea evolved after first putting a 4 in the home team slot and 81 on the visitors’ side, a configuration that looked like South Putnam was losing by the unusual football score of 81-4.
“That wouldn’t be good karma,” one of the volunteers suggested.