East Nashville Magnet School
East Nashville football player Jacob Phillips knows what home-field advantage is supposed to feel like.
At his previous school, Beech High, the standout middle linebacker experienced the sensation each time he suited up to play at the Buccaneers’ Shackle Island Stadium.
“The whole Friday night lights atmosphere was just amazing,” said Phillips, who transferred to East Nashville prior to the 2015-16 school year. “Having all the kids from school tailgate before, then paint up, go inside and fill up the student section and cheer all game, it was just it was just a great environment on game days.”
Unfortunately for Phillips, the state’s top-ranked linebacker prospect in the class of 2017, he hasn’t experienced one since arriving at East Nashville, which is the only Metro Nashville high school football program that doesn’t have a stadium on its campus.
“When I got to East it was a little bit different,” said Phillips, whose team plays its home games at TPS Complex next to Nashville School for the Arts, about five miles south of East Nashville. “It was a lot different, actually.”
And while Phillips will never be able to truly call 110 Gallatin Avenue his home field, there’s a chance that his younger Eagle teammates will in the near future.
“We’ve needed one for five years,” said Brian Waite, who has served as the Eagles’ football coach since 2010. “I don’t have enough adjectives to express how appreciated a stadium would be for the East Nashville community.”
East Nashville coach Brian Waite
The proposed 2016-17 Metro Nashville Public Schools capital improvement budget includes for $2.75 million for East Nashville to construct a stadium on its campus. It would be ready to open by fall of 2017.
“But I know sometimes when you have a budget with an amount that big, sometime things can get cut out,” East Nashville principal Steve Ball said.
Ball and the rest of the East Nashville community won’t know for sure whether or not the funds will be included until Mayor Megan Barry files the city’s capital spending plan on May 13.
Everything is speculation at this point, but those close to the program are optimistic.
“You never want to take anything for granted, but we’ve had alumni talking to councilmen and legislators,” Ball added. “Everything we’ve heard and every vibe that we get on this is that it’s going to happen.”
East Nashville Magnet School re-started its football program in 2008.
In addition to TPS Complex not featuring locker rooms, which forces the players to get dressed outside — just feet from the field — the venue’s rock-hard playing surface is extremely unforgiving.
“Even when it rains we have to change outside,” Phillips said. “That ground gets hard, especially when it’s cold.”
The facility isn’t exactly fan friendly, either.
“With the traffic it’s really hard for people to get to the games, and it’s not an easy place to find,” Ball said. “The seating is very limited and it’s concrete that you’re sitting on. It’s a cute little facility, but when you’ve got a growing football program it’s pretty tough.”
Last season, one of Eagles’ five scheduled home games was actually moved to their opponent’s stadium due to expected crowd overflow.
“We knew we wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Ball said of the team’s Sept. 25 matchup with Hendersonville. “(Hendersonville) actually gave us money to host the game, and that’s not good. That was very discouraging to the kids.”
In addition to the obvious morale boost that an on-campus stadium would provide the program, which was restarted in 2008, Ball contends that it would actually save the school district money.
“From a budget standpoint every time we have a game I have to send a crew of people over to the field to get it prepped, and that costs time and money that we’d be able to use on other things,” Ball said. “I just think that if you have a football program and you’ve got the ability to build a stadium, it’s a no-brainer really.”
Reach Michael Murphy at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.