The Pride of Orange Unified, Fred Kelly Stadium, hosted our inaugural CIF Girls’ Flag Football Games this season, including Canyon HS hosting Esperanza HS on Tuesday, August 22. All four high schools had extremely competitive CIF Girls’ Flag Football teams, and all four schools played at Fred Kelly this first season. We look forward to an expanded format next season and the advent of CIF Playoffs for Girls’ Flag Football!
Fred Kelly Stadium also hosted 20 varsity football games this season: 18 regular season football games and two CIF Playoff Football Games. At our peak, we hired nearly 40 dedicated Stadium Staff to work our games for 13 straight weeks. These OUSD staff members are tremendous colleagues and people who make the stadium a classy and prideful place to be. Thank you very much to Stadium Coordinator Jose Bastida, Assistant Coordinator Nancy Whitehead, and all our game-day staff for their great work!
Our Communications Department and Athletics Department produced a Fred Kelly Code of Conduct video shown multiple times per game outlining the expectations of Stadium sportsmanship, proper fan conduct, and our mission statement on anti-discrimination and anti-racism in all athletics competitions in alignment with Board Policy, CIF Policy, and our Conference Constitutions. Communications and Athletics also produced a Food Services video highlighting the delicious food menus customized for each high school and our friendly Food Services staff of over a dozen strong. Communications was also instrumental in preparing many in-game graphics, broadcasting the videos, and marketing ads for each of our high schools for each specific game and our district in totality.
Our Communications Department also did a phenomenal job live streaming all four Homecoming Games and Homecoming Ceremonies on our Orange Unified website. Compared to the streaming services provided by the National Federation of High Schools at several of our football games, the quality of the broadcast produced by our Communications Department of Hana Brake, Kevin Sullivan, Rosie Goldsmith, and Michael Sullivan was exemplary. Dr. Ken Miller and Nathan Percy split the play-by-play duties for the four games, conducting not only play-by-play duties but also providing district marketing and background information for student enrollment recruitment.
Our Stadium Announcers Chris Anderson, Bill Fallon, and Bob “The Voice of The Vanguards” Ruddy did a fantastic job providing game play-by-play as well as significantly contributing to our marketing of our Orange Slice Feeder Schools, the Orange Unified Public School Foundation (OUPSF), Open Enrollment, our High School Community Open Houses and Showcases and our offer of campus tours for enrollment. We also posted and presented our District and OUPSF marketing materials on the home side during the events. OUPSF also concluded its Car Raffle with the car raffle drawing on Friday, October 27.
While maintaining some cash sales for our community, most ticket sales were conducted during the regular season by GoFan. Stadium attendance for the regular season was at 23,124, and ticket sales during the regular season grossed nearly $177,000. During our two football playoff games, the CIF Associate Commissioner of Finance stated there were over 2,173 fans present. Therefore, we welcomed about 25,300 spectators to our stadium this year (we estimated we exceeded 28,000 spectators, including high school game day student lists and standard pass lists). Our high school Feeder School Nights were sponsored by the District with excellent attendance and community involvement at all four events.
Each game supported fabulous high school football and an exciting high school student experience. Our competitive marching band, cheer, dance, choir, and marvelous Student Sections are top-echelon achievers! All four high schools’ Student Sections were listed in the top rankings of the Student Sections in Orange County!
CIF officials, including Commissioner Michael West and Assistant Commissioner Richard Shearer, attended games at Fred Kelly Stadium this year and constantly commented on the beauty, cleanliness, and hospitality of Fred Kelly Stadium.
The success of the Stadium this year was a genuine team effort across our District. Steve Harlin and Richard Zavala provided significant support in facilitating upgrades to our Stadium, including significant increases in lighting, increased ventilation for our Snack Bars and Ticket Booths, in-season field maintenance, and the sponsoring all our stellar clean-up crews who kept the Stadium looking spectacular for every event! Special thanks also go to Jamie Sanchez and Denise Crain in Food Services for an excellent job all year and for hiring a fantastic staff that provided spectators with great food and beverages. Exceptional thanks to Ed Covarrubias, our Stadium Manager, for his daily/nightly contributions to our Stadium. And exceptional thanks go to Cathy Sadler in Accounting for supporting our Stadium events.
After conducting formative reviews during the 13-week season and summative analysis of the season in the last ten days, all our departments will continue to work together synergistically to improve our processes and upgrade our performance as a staff and state-of-the-art facility. We cannot wait for the 2024 season and another opportunity to offer our student-athletes, parents, staff, and community an excellent experience at Fred Kelly Stadium!