Next step at Plymouth: an all-weather track
PLYMOUTH – Dayton "Hub" Reed is the reluctant retiree.
As a fundraiser, the 1961 Plymouth High School graduate has been one of the driving forces with the Plymouth-Shiloh Booster Club behind the building of a football field/athletic complex at his alma mater.
It's a $750,000 project that reached a major milestone last fall when the Big Red played its home games there for the first time.
The next phase: an all-weather track ringing the field. Total cost, including asphalt and a rubberized surface, will likely approach $200,000. But that won't deter Reed.
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"I've retired five times," Reed, 73, joked. "I'm not mechanical; I can't do any woodworking, but I can go out and get things done."
Reed, an assistant men's and women's track coach at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, would love to at least see the asphalt down on the track come football season.
"People could see we were about done," he said. "Then maybe it would be easier for some individuals to come forward."
According to figures provided by athletic director Andrew McFarland, the Plymouth-Shiloh Board of Education kicked in for the lighting and sound systems at the complex, but most of the funding for the facility behind the high school has been through private donations.
That's where Reed comes in. Thanks to his power of persuasion - and some generous donors - the football field was playing in its new home at least a couple of years ahead of schedule.
"He's been a major blessing," McFarland said of Reed. "There's no doubt he's the mastermind behind getting the whole thing moving. Because of him, we saw some big alumni donations and that's what really got the ball rolling."
McFarland agrees that having the asphalt down on the track by football season could help spur funding toward completion of the oval.
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"The gravel-slash-cinder track really got beat up by the football field project," he said. "Water would lay on it and it was really dusty during football games. Getting the new track in would be really be a great step for the facility."
Anyone wishing to donate toward the track should contact McFarland (419-687-8200, ex. 22172), sight supervisor Todd Arnold (419-631-3194), booster club president Jason Porter (419-989-5421) or Reed (740-504-8327).
McFarland breaks the project into four stages: 1. football games (press box, bleachers, concession stand, minimal fencing, ticket booth); 2. all-weather track; additional fencing; 3. public restrooms; 4. locker rooms, landscaping.
Reed, who played four sports at Plymouth, attended the Big Red's final home game of the 2014 season at the village-owned Mary Fate Park. It was his first game back since he was a coach at Crestview in the late 1960s.
He vowed that would be the last game the football team would play in the deteriorating facility at the park.
"It was the same bleachers; everything was like when I played," he said of a venue that featured no locker rooms and one restroom building about 150 yards away, used by everyone. "I showed up, looked around and said 'Where's the locker room?' 'We don't have one.'
"We can't go on like this. So we started raising money."
Reed attended two home games at the new facility last season and was impressed.
"It was unbelievable," he said. "I've been around a lot of good people. The people in Plymouth have been great.
"Coach (Tom) Lewis and Todd Arnold are the two people responsible. Coach Lewis told me where to go (for donations) and he introduced me to those people, and Arnold took the bull by the horns. He's gone stage by stage and is responsible for everything that has gone up."
Reed taught and coached in five school districts over a 40-year career. He was head track coach at Bowling Green High School for 29 years, the athletic director at Pemberville Eastwood and a middle school principal in East Knox, where he's working on two projects: a facility for wrestling and elementary basketball and sideline jackets for the football team to wear in bad weather.
Reed lives in Apple Valley, near Mount Vernon, but Plymouth is still home. His imprint is all over the new athletic complex, whether he wants any of the credit or not.
"I was able to contact some pretty good alumni," he said. "When we raised the first $250,000, people could see this was some serious stuff.
"I didn't do this for recognition. I did it for the community."
jspencer@nncogannett.com
419-521-7239
Twitter, Instagram: @jspencermnj
