A couple of years ago when I first arrived in this county, there was one element to the high school fields that stuck out like a sore thumb â€" the lack of lights on the field.
Growing up in Middle Tennessee, lights were essential to any field a high school game was considered to be played on, due mainly to the fact that late in the fall or early in the spring, it could be completely dark by 5:30 p.m.

If there were no lights on those fields, at least 20 percent of the games played would have started during school hours or been cut short.
I soon found out that’s not as big of an issue in East Tennessee, but I still couldn’t figure out why there were no lights.

I understand budget concerns for not only putting the lights up, but also maintaining and using the lights.
There’s a huge cost associated with it and there’s not always enough money to cover these costs, especially in today’s economy.
But there have been cases where having those lights would’ve been quite the luxury.
I can remember covering at least four soccer games involving Sweetwater and Sequoyah where darkness nearly prevailed.

One Sweetwater game involved an injury and coach from the opposing team being ejected, extending the game nearly 30 minutes longer than normal.
By the time the game was finished, seeing players on the opposite side of the field was next to impossible.

Sequoyah had a baseball game shortened by darkness earlier this season against Polk County.
But the good news is, Sequoyah won and that won’t happen to them again, at least not on their home field.
If you haven’t driven down Highway 411 lately, take a quick trip out there and look at the new lights on the baseball field.

With all the improvements Sequoyah head coach Adam Kefauver is making on the field, these new lights are a fitting addition to improving the facilities.
These lights offer the Chiefs a chance at extended practice times, more flexible scheduling, and the possibility of hosting some big, money-making tournaments in the future.

These tournaments are a good way to bring a lot of talented teams together while possibly generating quite a bit of money at the same time.
Just look at the East Tennessee Bash a couple of weekends ago.

With it being summer and the longest day of the year not far away, the need for lights is minimal.
But just imagine a tournament of that size in late-March. Those kinds of games would be hard-pressed to be played with only a couple of hours of daylight on a Friday and all day Saturday.
Is it essential for every school here to have lights?

 It seems Sweetwater and Tellico Plains, along with all the other sports that rely solely on daylight, have no trouble getting their games played on a more than consistent basis.
But having an extended window of opportunity to play these games would certainly be nice.

Hopefully we’ll see more of our teams here having that luxury in the near future.