ROSSFORD, Ohio — Taxpayers in Rossford got their first chance to see their latest levy in action.
They walked into the brand new Jackson Ferguson Football Stadium Wednesday ahead of their season opener later this week.
Rossford has a rich football history, from the coaches, to the teams and more, but now they have a brand new state of the art stadium to add to it.
"This is really going to be exciting in the future," said Tom Ferguson, a former Rossford player and coach. "It turns a lot of heads."
Rossford School's opened the stadium doors and turned on the lights for the community to get a sneak peak of the field and dedicate the project.
"It is awesome," said Brooke Nusbaum, a junior at Rossford High School and member of the marching band. "It is such a cool experience to be on the new field. I'm not used to it yet, but it's going to be a great year."
"The players are excited, I know the coaches are excited," said Rich Reno, a coach for Rossford. "The community obviously you can see by how many people just showed up to this are excited. It's going to be awesome."
While Rossford's High School is still under construction until January of 2020, the field's renovations were completed in a year. It's a complete overhaul, new stands, press box, and a turf field. But for one of the field's namesakes that might make the coaches job harder.
"I could always tell the good players when they came off the field all muddy, green and dirty," said Former Coach Tom Ferguson. "I knew they put in their time on the field. I worried about the ones that had a clean uniform coming off the field and now here you're not going to be able to tell."
While the field is all new Rossford's head football coach said it keeps the tradition of the past while also moving the team, school and community forward. Now, it's their mission to help Rossfordians see the value of their tax dollars as they take the field on Fridays from here on out.
"The biggest thing for us is we want to put a product on the field that the community can be proud of and our kids have worked extremely hard to put themselves in a position to give it to them," said Rossford's Head Football Coach Todd Drusback.
"It gives me more pride," said Jake Shiffert, Rossford senior and a captain of the 2019 Bulldog football team. "It definitely gives me something else to push for like we have this field and that's something special for us."
Fans say they are ready and have high hopes for this season.
"I hope the stadium gets filled up and I hope we do good," said Wade Wagner, a Rossford fan and resident.
The first game at the brand new Jackson Ferguson Stadium is this Friday August 30th at 7:00. The Bulldogs take on Swanton.