Grace Preparatory Academy (Grace Prep) is a small, Christian private school in Arlington, Texas and one of the newest members of the ScoreVision family. The young school has demonstrated a commitment to athletics with 19 state championships and over 70% of their students involved in at least one sport. Its latest commitment to athletic excellence comes in the form of their brand-new, state-of-the-art athletic facility.
Grace Prep was building a new 30,000-square-foot facility with a collegiate-sized gymnasium and knew they wanted to go above and beyond a traditional single-function, metal-box scoreboard. They began searching for an alternative and found ScoreVision, an innovative LED jumbotron scoreboard and software system. According to Chris Harper, Grace Prep’s Dean of Advancement, “for our money and our time, we discovered they were the best in the business.”
Grace Prep’s community responded to the new facility and brilliant LED jumbotron scoreboards immediately. “Since installing the boards, we’ve had an amazing response from both our staff and students internally and the community externally,” says Harper. “When they walk into our gym, they can’t believe it. They’re blown away. We’ve taken a 4A high school here in Texas and given them a collegiate-level experience. These multimedia scoreboards have really taken our entire athletic program and our entire student life to the next level and we’re super excited about that.”
Now, Grace Prep is the place to be.
As a small, young private school, Grace Prep spent its 22-year history renting gym space from local colleges and local public schools - not an ideal situation considering those schools are often competitors. One day after the first game in their new facility, a coach from the largest public high school in the area reached out to Brandon Helm, Athletic Facilities Coordinator. “She said, ‘Hey, I’m actually having problems with my gym. I saw the scoreboard, I saw the atmosphere, I saw the gym. Is there any way we can play our next 7 home games in your gym?’” recalled Helm. This was an a-ha moment for the school that not only did they finally have their own dream gym, but other schools were envious.
“When it comes to athletics, bigger is better and that’s where we’re at,” Harper emphasized. “We’re in a competitive market being a private school. We’re competing with public schools and charter schools so we’re looking for every opportunity we can to take one step in front of our competitors. ScoreVision allowed us to do that. We’ve taken a small high school gym and we’ve made it one of the top venues in the state of Texas. It’s a place where students want to come and play. Patrons want to come and watch a game.”
So for a school competing with public, charter, and other private schools, what’s the best way to make your school the place to be? According to Harper, it’s a ScoreVision multimedia scoreboard system.
“No matter the size of your school, no matter where you’re at in your budget, because ultimately the scoreboards are going to pay for themselves, you need to get a ScoreVision scoreboard system. It’s going to take your program to the next level and you’re going to be that school that everyone wants to be.”
Hear what Harper and other leaders at Grace Prep Academy have to say about their experience with ScoreVision in the short video below!
Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we’ll share the 6 simple steps Grace Prep took to raise nearly half a million dollars using their ScoreVision system! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to be the first to know when it’s released.
Are you ready to take your facilities to the next level? Contact us today and see what a ScoreVision LED jumbotron scoreboard system can do for your school.
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