HANOVER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Home games for the Hanover Area Hawkeyes are not going to be at Memorial Stadium for the rest of the season. The School District announced Thursday the stadium is going to be closed a lot longer than expected.
"The original intent of the project was to beautify the stadium, upgrade it, make it a better place for our students," said Nathan Barrett, superintendent of Hanover Area School District. "Unfortunately, it did not go that way and as a result we have to put the student safety and the health of our community first."
Memorial Stadium was being renovated over the summer to celebrate its 100th anniversary. During renovations, lead was discovered in the older layers of paint, forcing construction crews to focus on cleaning up contamination rather than renovation.
"Big anniversary, we were expecting a lot of good things, a lot of the community was expecting to come back and really celebrate with us," said Jason Majiros, head coach of Hanover Area High School Football. "I know it's disappointing for our kids, I'd imagine it's disappointing for our alumni."
"It's got to be a tremendous letdown, we have seniors who have never played a single snap or a single down in that stadium," said Barrett.
Despite the news of the stadium, seniors on the team are staying optimistic and focusing on their upcoming games this season.
"We just got to play our best game, it doesn't matter where we go, we got to have that mentality that we can go anywhere and play our game because it's the Hanover way," said Tyler Garrison, Hanover Football Senior.
"I've been playing on this field since I was younger so it's different having no home games, but I'm still going to come out there and play like I always did and try to get some wins," said Noah Boehm, Hanover Football Senior.
Since the Hawkeyes still have three home games on their schedule, local schools are lending their fields so they can still stay close to home.
"They're playing at great stadiums, for our home games ... Wilkes-Barre [Area High School] is letting us use theirs, we're going to have a game up at King's, and I think we're going to go back down to Nanticoke, so they're all top-notch facilities," said Majiros.
Even though the Hawkeyes Homecoming game will be at Wilkes-Barre Area High School next Friday, they’re still planning to have their Homecoming parade and traditions at Hanover High.