Athletic Signage: One For The Record Books at Farmington Central High School

Farmington Central High School in Farmington, Illinois Celebrate Football and Track Success with Record Board Signage

Friday nights under the lights look a little different in Farmington, Illinois. Farmington Central High School District 265 recently updated the football scoreboard with their signature purple and gold school colors, and decorative trusses above a digital board.

After the scoreboard was in place, they wanted to make a few other additions to the football stadium. One feature was a record board sign to celebrate the football teams that made it to the playoffs. They also wanted signage highlighting track and field record holders.

Using the scoreboard truss design as a starting point, the record board signs were designed to be installed on the walls of a concession building.

Track & Field Signage

“The track and field signage was pretty straight forward,” says Tom Wilcoxen, Central Illinois Sign Expert. “There are a set number of events, so we measured the space and decided how many panels we needed to display all the records for the boys and girls track teams.” The sign was designed with individual aluminum panels that can be removed easily and updated with vinyl letters if anyone breaks a school record.

Football Signage

“The signage for the football team was more challenging,” Wilcoxen says. “We wanted to celebrate undefeated teams from the 1940s as well as recent playoff teams.” The final design is a modular solution that nicely fills out space, but is easy to update with new panels with future successes.

“Let’s say they win a state championship one year, we can move the categories around and make a new panel for the state title,” Wilcoxen says.

The center of the sign also showcases the schedule for the upcoming year. The team generally plays against the same handful of teams from year to year so they can reshuffle the panels as needed. This sign gives the stadium a polished look and only requires a screwdriver and 10 minutes to update each year.

Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork

Farmington’s superintendent reached out to Tom Wilcoxen to get the record board sign designed and the signage team worked with the Athletic Department to fine-tune the details to be included on the boards.

Wilcoxen also met with the school’s facilities team onsite to make sure the sign would fit well where the school wanted the signs installed. “We originally thought the signs would sit side by side on the brick wall of the concessions building,” Wilcoxen says. “Once I saw the building in person, I realized there were lights, electrical outlets, and decorative bricks that we had to work around.”

There was also new fencing being installed around the stadium that was going to get in the way of one of the signs. They adjusted the placement of the signs so that everyone who enters the football field sees the signage recognizing their athletes’ successes.

The collaborative effort made design, production, and installation processes go smoothly.

Where to start...

Check out some more athletic signage examples at Van Meter High School or learn more about some of the Frequently Asked Questions on Athletic Signage from other schools.

If you’re looking for a proactive signage expert, reach out to Tom Wilcoxen or any of these signage experts.