Mira Costa High School
The Mira Costa High School new scoreboard is a success story. It began when Lauren Burton, vice president of the Ways and Means Committee of the Mustang Aquatic Booster Club, had an idea about how the club money could best be put to use.
"As a parent, I heard complaints about the scoreboard (at the Mira Costa High School Aquatics Facility), how it didn't always work and it was hard to read," Burton said. "My daughter played four years of water polo, and my son was a swimmer, so I decided to get involved."
Road to Success
Burton thought a new scoreboard could be a Booster Club project that would provide immediate results. She went to the club and offered to take charge of raising money. But there was a condition, that the board members themselves would contribute money. They agreed, and Burton began her endeavor.
With Burton's experience as executive director for a nonprofit organization, she knew what to do. Burton went to past supporters and presented the benefits to the donors for giving to this cause. In particular, she targeted Body Glove in Redondo Beach, a manufacturer of wet suits and surfing gear.
"My pitch was to give them first shot at having their logo on the new scoreboard," said Burton. "They jumped at the chance."
Burton was savvy enough to know that getting the coach involved was crucial to its success. "I went to him and asked for names of scoreboard manufacturers. He was totally behind the project, and made the choice easy for me," said Burton. The coach said, "It has to be a CTS scoreboard. They're the best in the industry." The high school already had other CTS equipment, so that part was easy.
Burton also talked to parents and other supporters of the facility and asked what they'd like to see in a new scoreboard. "Everyone wanted more flexibility," said Burton. "Our old board was a one-line scoreboard. We couldn't do anything fun or creative, we couldn't recognize corporations that participated — we had to use banners tacked up around the facility."
The Result
The project took months to complete, but the end results, Burton said, were more than worth it. The new equipment at Mira Costa High School includes:
- 36mm red outdoor matrix scoreboard, 80 x 96 pixels, about 9.5 x 11.3 feet
- Custom sign panels for the sponsor and the facility name
- 2 LED PC-Pro Shot Clocks
- A single line LED numeric scoreboard across the pool from the main scoreboard that shows game time, score and period.
Game information goes to the scoreboards from a CTS timer. A wireless laptop computer controls the matrix scoreboard's formatting and animations.
The end result of the scoreboard project? "[It's] everything I envisioned," Burton said. "There's a learning curve with how to run the equipment, but we're getting there. At the final game, we were able to introduce swimmers with a slide show."
Celebration
Burton decided to have a "scoreboard party" to celebrate the facility upgrade. "We honored corporate donors at the party, served pizza and pop, and got a company to donate beach balls and inner tubes," Burton said. "The kids had relay races and we produced a special presentation on the new scoreboard."
The comments from supporters and opponents alike have been uniform: "So cool! Really incredible!"
"We're the envy of all southern California," Burton said. "And it was great to work with Colorado Time Systems. The install was timely, and they trained us on the software, and everything went smoothly. They did a lot of good things for us! They even assisted us in selling our old scoreboard! Rick Connell really went the extra mile for us."
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