High school football: New stadium adds strength to already strong Bingham squad

SOUTH JORDAN — One of the core principals of Bingham High football is that the Miners want to be the best at "it", whatever "it" is.

Heading into the 2008 season, in which the Miners are expected to continue their reign near the top of Utah's prep football landscape, coach Dave Peck and his program are adding another piece to the puzzle.

On top of having one of the state's top football programs — Peck said he couldn't be happier with the state of his program right now — the Miners have added something to augment it this fall — a dazzling stadium.

Besides installing an artificial surface, which is unquestionably all the rage these days in Utah, Bingham will add a 25-foot-by-27 scoreboard in the south endzone, complete with a video board, the first of its kind at a prep stadium in Utah.

It's still not clear whether the field will be ready for use in Week 1 against Skyline — Peck said Tuesday afternoon he thinks it's 50-50 and that a final decision might not be made until Friday — but clearly Ron Thorne Stadium, as it will be renamed, will stand as further empirical evidence of the strength of Bingham's football program.

"This is just another step. It's funny, I feel as every senior class has gone out, we've added things that's been unique to that class. I think this program's gotten stronger and stronger every year that I've been here, and obviously this is pretty amazing," said Peck, gazing out at his soon-to-be-completed diggs.

"I'm even going, 'Wow, this is everything I've ever hoped for.'"

Well, maybe not everything, but it's close. Originally, plans included the addition of more seating on the north side of the field. That got nixed for now, though Peck said he expects more seating to be added by next year.

Because the school board came in late and requested that lacrosse lines be added, according to Peck, the start of the project was delayed by 2-3 weeks, meaning it's touch-and-go over whether it will be ready for Bingham's endowment game against Skyline on August 22nd. If it's not, Bingham will play at Skyline and the first home game on the new field will be pushed to Week 4 when Jordan visits.

The field and scoreboard are complete, but the hold-up is an 8-lane track, which couldn't be completed until the field was finished and is currently being installed.

Whatever field they play on, however, expectations will be extremely high for Bingham this fall.