They’ve taken the handoff, and the Pop Keeney Stadium scoreboard committee is heading toward the end zone.
It will soon be touchdown time, but the group is still seeking $30,000 in donations to help pay for the state-of-the-art LED multimedia screen and scoreboard that will debut come football time in September.
So far, $120,000 has been raised. The George Selg-led committee hopes to secure the rest by the end of March. The scoreboard will be installed in April in the southwest corner of the Pop near the concession stand.
Getting this scoreboard in place is like the Reporter redesigning its look and beefing up its Web site with daily updates and videos.
It’s huge, and not only for the local football and soccer players who grace the Pop Keeney turf in the fall and spring. Other sports teams will have their game results and videos beamed on the screen at halftime of football games. But, that’s not all: how about school groups like theater, band, automotive, culinary and more getting some screen time, as well? This is all part of the plan — and people are getting pumped up about it.
The donations have been flooding in from all parts of the country. According to Bothell High grad Selg and Bothell High football booster Kim Monson, they’ve received cash and touching letters from former residents in Missouri and Nebraska along with a slew of present residents.
“It has struck a chord in the community,” said Monson, noting that BHS grads from 1934 and 1954 are among the donators.
Selg, a football player back in his high-school days, said one letter that stood out was from a former BHS swimmer who remembers her time in Bothell well and is on board with a donation.
“She said, ‘I loved high school, I loved Bothell and the community,’” Selg said with a smile.
So when that 7-foot-by-13-foot LED screen and its accompanying 18-foot-by-25-foot scoreboard lights up on game night, the Bothell Cougars, Inglemoor Vikings and Woodinville Falcons will be in heaven.
Pop Keeney Stadium is electric already, but it will be a fireworks-like show with the new addition to the Northshore landscape.
Tax-deductible donations are being accepted at: Cougar Football Club — Scoreboard Fund, P.O. Box 42, Bothell, WA 98041. For information, contact gselg@selg.us; al.haynes1@verizon.net; klcfschroeder@comcast.net.
