Let There Be Lights

And on the eighth game, there was light — plenty of it, too.

This evening, Northgate High School's undefeated football team will play its first game under the campus' new  stadium lighting system.

The field's four 80-foot-high light poles were installed last week. The 72,000 watts of electricity will be officially switched on at 6:15 p.m.

The game between the 7-0 Broncos and Ygnacio Valley High kicks off at 7 p.m.

"Everybody is so jazzed," said Ralph Austin, a member of the Northgate Community Pride Foundation. "We're going to have a 'Friday Night Lights' experience right here in our back yard."

Not everyone is pleased.

The residents who live along Hutchinson Road across the street from the football field have been fighting the stadium lights.

They say the night games not only brighten up their neighborhood, they also bring traffic, noise and litter to their corner of town.

The residents' attorney, Kirk Mussachio, said negotiations are ongoing between the neighbors and the school district.

He said the two sides are discussing mitigation measures to help ease the impact of the night games. He added a temporary restraining order against  games is not out of the question should no compromise be reached.

"There are going to be impacts," Mussachio said. "The question is what will be done to reduce those impacts."

Austin said some steps already have been taken. A green covering has been placed along the part of the fence adjacent to Hutchinson Road to discourage people from parking on the street and watching the game.

In addition, seating plans have been changed. There are 500 bleacher seats available for tonight's game. The foundation, however, is raising money to expand capacity to 1,500 seats. To date, $100,000 of the necessary $700,000 has been donated.

When the bleachers are built, the 1,000 seats for Northgate fans will be on the east side of the field, away from the neighborhood. That's despite the fact that the home crowd will look into the setting sun and won't have a view of Mount Diablo.

"We've all been sitting down at the table trying to figure all this out," said Austin. "At the end of the day, we all have to live together."

An evening game was played Sept. 3 against Dublin High, but that was with less powerful 30-foot-high temporary lights. Tonight's game is the real deal. 

A night game  also is planned for a week from tonight, when Northgate takes on another currently undefeated team, Concord High School.