This fall, Friday night lights will take on a whole new meaning for Coffee County football players and fans at Carden-Jarrell Field. The stadium’s brand-new lighting system recently became operational, with all-new features including multiple colors and dancing lights.

The new lighting system made a special debut last Tuesday night, with several members of the Coffee County School Board and employees from Coffee County Schools present for the grand unveiling.

The updated lighting at the football field is part of a larger project to revamp the lighting systems at several schools across the county’s school system.

“It’s big for our county. It’s gonna be very nice. This actually is going for every one of our athletic fields for the Coffee County school system, we shouldn’t have any light issues for many years to come,” Coffee County Deputy Director of Schools Kelvin Shores said of the lighting project. “Whereas we would run into a ballast going out or a light that needed to be changed, that should be taken care of for a long time.”

The project, run by C & H Commercial Contractors, has been planned for the past few years and got under way in December. The first stages began with updating lighting at several Coffee County Middle School athletic fields, including adding lighting to the school’s soccer field.

More recently, new lighting was installed at both the Coffee County Raider Academy soccer field and at Carden-Jarrell Field. Up next for new lighting is the Raider Academy tennis courts, which C & H expects to begin in the next two weeks.

The baseball and softball fields at the high school will follow this summer. The Coffee County softball field will also have dancing lights installed, courtesy of program boosters.

While all of these fields are receiving upgrades in their lighting, the football field’s additional features will provide for an added experience on game days, as well as during other events at the stadium such as graduation.

“It had been discussed and everybody knew that was gonna be something that was gonna be wanted,” Shores said of the new lighting technology. “With the football field, there’s more events and probably more people turn out, so it was already added into the bid.”

Coffee County School Board member Robert Gilley, who is also a former president of the Coffee County Quarterback Club, added that there was plenty of excitement for adding these new features to the football field’s lighting system. Five years after the stadium’s new jumbotron was installed, he was proud to see this next chapter of the stadium’s upgrades implemented to further represent the school system to the public.

“Your football stadium, as a county school system, that’s your face. That is the image of your system,” Gilley said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of other things, but when it comes down to athletics and stuff of that nature, everybody loves every one of them, doesn’t matter what courts you play on or everything else, but everybody knows where your football stadium is.”

Project manager Jared Hershman graduated from Coffee County Central High School in 1997 and played for the Red Raiders during his time as a student. He also has a son currently playing on the football team as well. As an alumnus and father of a current player, getting to lead the installation of this new lighting system was a special opportunity.

Hershman added that the state-of-the-art technology being used at Carden-Jarrell Field was a first for football fields in this area, with Hershman stating that this is the first high school field in the state of Tennessee to use this Musco Sports Lighting RGBW show lighting.

“It’s pretty exciting. You see it on Saturday nights and Sunday nights, but Friday nights, no one has this,” Hershman said. “It’s pretty cool to bring it to where I played ball.”

With the lights now officially operational, those who attended Tuesday’s unveiling are looking forward to the rest of the community seeing them in action during Red Raider football games this fall.

“Everybody will (be excited),” Gilley said. “Fans and everyone will be excited.”