(Photo: Jen Torres)
Friday night high school football is coming to Ely Park this school year.
The South Hunterdon Regional High School (SHRHS) Eagles will be playing five regular season home games at the Ely Park field.
The reason is the building of a new running track at South Hunterdon Regional High School. As a result, the team had to relocate to Ely Field for the 2019 football season.
Jason Miller, the Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at SHRHS wrote some recommendations to keep in mind during games:
- Parking is city parking only with a few limited spots in the city lot and LPS lot.
- All spectators are to be seated on the Main Street side of the field. No fans will be permitted on the scoreboard/press box side of the field. Fans are welcome to bring lawn chairs and utilize space behind the ropes on the Main Street side of the field.
- SHR Athletic Season Passes will be sold at the gate for $35. These passes are good for all regular season football, boys basketball and girls basketball.
- The snack shack at Ely Field will be open and all purchases will support the SHR band and football team booster clubs.
Although this might make for more lively downtown autumn nights in Lambertville, the challenge of parking is often a local concern. To alleviate some of the traffic, the team will be bused from the South Hunterdon campus and buses will park at West Amwell Elementary School. However, there will undoubtedly be more cars in town searching for parking spots on these nights and the nearby Friday Night Firehouse Grills will be occurring during game times.
Track and field at South Hunterdon
The home schedule is:
- Sept. 6 vs. Highland Park
- Sept. 13 vs. Roselle Park
- Oct. 11 vs. New Providence
- Oct. 25 vs. Middlesex (Homecoming)
- Nov. 1 vs. Manville
After attending a recent scrimmage, one SHRHS parent also stressed that the sight lines were challenging with the players, cheerleaders, band, and spectators surrounding the limited sidelines. Instead of lawn chairs, ladders might be more useful.
The city passed an ordinance for the field work back in the spring of 2018, which included general improvements bonds to finance the work. City engineer Krista Heinrich drew up the modifications, which included angling the field to make it a New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) regulation playing ground. Land-Tech Enterprises, Inc., of Warrington performed the field work.
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