On Dec. 19, Lafayette installed a new addition to the Main Gym. What started out as a potential video scoring table from the Boys Basketball Booster Club turned into a 6×11 LED video board to be placed next to the current scoreboard. 

Activities Director Jon Sumner said, “Our head boys basketball Coach [Matt] Landwehr approached me about getting a video score table. A few of the parents in his community were interested in learning more about it and [had] some ideas to go with it for our activities. After meeting with a couple of companies, [we] started leaning towards an actual video board instead of a table as it would be a permanent fixture in the gym.”

After talking with a few different companies, the video board appeared to be the best option for the gym. 

“We started doing our research and we actually found that the full-size video board wasn’t that much more expensive than the scorer’s table in the grand scheme of things. Our sponsors said that they would be committed to helping us purchase the board,” Head Boys Basketball Coach Matt Landwehr said.

Since the board has been installed, most of the work has been done already. 

“All of the work is done upfront creating images, graphics, etc. For in-game use it just needs one person to run it,” Sumner said.

Ultimately the decision of parent or manager running the board during the game is up to the coaches of the team. 

“Each individual program is able to utilize the board in their own ways in order to help fund it,” Landwehr said. “However there is a core group of sponsors who have an agreement for advertising through Sumner’s office, some that have been basketball sponsors before and some who are the sponsors of the school and supporters of Lafayette in general.”

With the addition of the board, Landwehr intends to improve the overall experience at a sporting event therefore increasing attendance for the current season and more to come. 

The money used to pay for the board was donated by outside donors rather than school funds.