Chuck Williams: Garrett-Harrison the jewel of Chattahoochee Valley

It is the best facility of its kind in the Chattahoochee Valley.

I am talking about Garrett-Harrison Stadium in Phenix City. Primarily used for high school football, the city-owned facility is nothing short of spectacular.

I have been in a lot of high school football stadiums over the years, but Thursday night I went over to Phenix City to catch a little of the Central High School Red Devils against an outmanned Robert E. Lee team from Montgomery.

The attraction was to see a few quarters of first-year Coach Jamey DuBose’s Red Devils — the Greatest Show on Turf.

What made the impression was the new artificial turf and everything around it. The city spent more than $544,000 installing the turf — part of a $2.5 million renovation of the stadium over the last seven years.

Some of the critics said the city was wasting its money on a venue that is only used a dozen times a year.

That’s not the way I see it.

It’s an investment in the Central High football program, but it is also an investment in the quality of life in Phenix City. Go to a Central High football game, and you quickly realize you are no longer in Columbus. Though you see into Muscogee County from the top of the stadium, you are a world away.

In towns like Phenix City, Friday nights mean something. They are a social event. You see neighbors sitting next to neighbors being neighborly. You see young men and women wearing the red and black of Central High.

City council members and school board members are there, even working the event. New Superintendent Randy Wilkes was on the sideline.

Friday nights are special — and important — in places like Phenix City.

Now, the folks of Phenix City have a stadium that is special, too. It’s far superior to anything in Columbus. Memorial Stadium and Kinnett Stadium feel tired and dated.

Not, Garrett-Harrison.

They have the state-of-the-art field turf, a surface that many colleges use. They have a scoreboard that gives a big-time feel to a small-town football. The scoreboard has a video board on it — and the Central High starters introduce themselves to the Garrett-Harrison crowd.

The locker rooms are new and spacious.

Phenix City is an easy target when things go wrong. Here, they did it right. They did it first class. And they deserve a tip of the cap for that.

And the stadium is attractive enough to land small college games. The only real issue is parking, and it is not going to be easy to solve, but they will figure something out, short of paving over Moon Lake.

Saturday Tuskegee University and Albany State played in Garrett-Harrison. They let people tailgate around the adjoining park and lake. When you have a stadium like Garrett-Harrison, you have to take a different approach to get bigger events.

Phenix City has scored a touchdown with its stadium makeover.

And that is a good thing. A real good thing.

This story was originally published September 15, 2014 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Chuck Williams: Garrett-Harrison the jewel of Chattahoochee Valley."