Randy Smith
To the Hamilton County Board of Education: The ball is now in your court. You know which ball I'm talking about. The proverbial football that has been kicked and bounced all over East Ridge. It's finally been placed in your court because the stadium where the Pioneers have played their home football games for the last 50 years has been condemned. Other than a few coats of orange or white paint, nothing has been done to the stadium in 50 years. Not only has it been a safety hazard for fans attending games and other events, it is a total disgrace the disrespect shown to the man the stadium is named for.
Raymond James was the highly successful football coach for the Pioneers for many years and knowing him the way I did, he would be crying on the inside at what he saw. He was too tough to ever show much emotion, but he would be heartbroken at the huge holes and cracks in the concrete. The same ones that forced East Ridge city officials to put police tape around the home side of the field and condemn its use.
The Pioneers are 2-0 to start the season, but when they play their first home game this Friday evening, it will be at the Baylor School, not Raymond James Stadium. I have seen and heard about a lot of finger pointing the past several days, but to actually blame one individual or one group for the stadium's demise is not fair. It's everyone's fault. Everyone from school officials to folks in the East Ridge city hall to the few people who remain tied to the school as "booster club" members.
How is it that a stadium that big can go so long without repairs and no one notice it? If the truth be known, the stadium should have been condemned years ago. Now I am not proposing the building of a new stadium on campus, but it needs to be repaired so the team can use it again. Cost estimates for the work needed has been as high as $500,000, which is actually inexpensive considering what it costs now to build a new high school stadium.
Could it be that the reason nothing has been done on campus recently is the fact that the majority of the student body is mostly black? That has been brought to my attention, but I certainly hope that's not the case. But when I look around the county at Brainerd High School, and Tyner Academy as well as the Howard School it's easy to see the lack of facilities and technology compared to say, East Hamilton, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy. I'm not going to sugar-coat this; our county needs to do a better job taking care of all the student's needs, not just the ones in the more affluent white communities.
So Hamilton County, the ball is in your court. Do what is right and find the money needed to repair Raymond James Stadium. But don't stop there. Spend another $200,000 or so and build a softball field at Brainerd High. Make sure all of our schools have the computers and technology that is needed to give our kids a chance for a better education and a better life.
The ball is in your court. We're all waiting.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.