UPDATE III: See a video of the alumni players embedded in this later post.
UPDATE II: See a writeup on the game in this later post.
UPDATE: 177 images can now be seen here. Included are closeups of all the attending alumni players (in small groups). If you can comment on the photos, identifying one or more of the alumni [name, class, etc.], it would be most appreciated.
Decatur's grand opening of its new stadium [just 322 days after its last game in the historic old one -- first lighted high school stadium in Georgia] was almost perfect. The weather was clear and mild. Decaturites packed the home stands. The grande opening went off without a glitch. The facilities were shiny, new, and operational.
It was marred only by an ugly 35-15 loss. The score was 21-0 Hillgrove Hawks [a AAAA school in Powder Springs] before the half. AA Decatur's record is now 1-2 with Price Jones as coach. He was promoted from being an assistant coach. The Hawks broke a two-game losing streak and are now 2-2.
Why did we schedule a AAAA team???
At least these Decatur Bulldogs did do better than the other Decatur Bulldogs, who lost 60-0.
See 177 photos in this Flickr set. Some videos will be linked Sunday.
Visitors enter the north stands from an entrance under the scoreboard off Commerce. The south (home) stands were packed for the game. This image was taken pregame:
The view from the south shows the metal bleacher style construction, and the concession building in the center:
The new Spike logo in the center of the field is large and looks great. [The old-style, forward looking, logo on the Decatur website must have been photoshopped. This blogger likes this one better, because it looks less like the Yale/UGA one.]

The people standing on the sideline are some of the alumni players. All of them will be featured in closeups in a Flickr album to be linked soon. [That's Walter Chadwick in the white tee shirt at about the 49 yard line. inDECATUR has posted his story.] The CSD Superintendent and School Board members are standing between the 45th and 50th yard line.
In keeping with the Berkeley side of Decatur, those who cannot afford a $7 general admission ticket can see the game quite well from the wall north of the stadium or through the chain link fence along Commerce.
The fans don't all wear the school colors of blue and gold. The press box is rather Mayberry looking, like a mobile home:
The lighting was excellent. The uniforms looked great, except this blogger would prefer the "Spike" bulldog logo [ass has been used in the past] to the word "Dawgs" (in baseball style print) on the helmets:

The field is also lined for soccer, which requires a slightly wider field. Decatur has a state championship in soccer in its trophy case.
Some of the old stones from the historic stadium were used behind the stadium. This blogger would have liked to have seen more of them, and less concrete/brick curbing and walls.
The flyover was a nice thought. Flyovers are rare in HS ball. But it seemed bigger, higher, and slower than most. This is a 10X zoom image:
Whether we really needed to borrow so much money to build a new stadium (vs. renovating the historic one [which was structurally sound] and just adding visitor stands on the north side) is debatable. But, now that we've voted in the $30M bond and accept the tax burden, it is nice to have shiny, new things.
The Mayor was there, of course:
See also photos taken by Dennis @ Next Stop Decatur (using his Cannon Rebel XT camera), whom this blogger finally had the pleasure to finally meet in person at the game.
See also Goldtimer's unofficial DHS alumni website at dhsga.com.
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