Merced High was awarded $5,000 as a winner of T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights program, which is a nationwide competition providing funding to high schools in smaller communities. Merced High is one of 1,000 schools selected to receive the prize money.

 

Merced High football coach Rob Scheidt submitted the application to the process on behalf of the school.”I wrote a little short essay on why we should win it,” Scheidt said.”Then it went into a pool, and every so many weeks in the beginning of the season, they picked so many winners, and we got down to I guess the last week and then we got picked.”

 

Scheidt said in his essay he wrote why Friday nights are so special at Merced High. “I wrote about the tradition of the school, the new stadium and it not being complete, and us trying to get that thing completed as quickly as possible,” Scheidt said. “It was about the needs of our community, the needs of our school, the needs of our students and why football is such a big thing here. It was why Friday nights are special at our place compared to other places.”

 

T-Mobile says the Friday Night 5G Lights program is designed to support high school communities and their athletic programs while encouraging school and community participation. Schools residing in areas with a population under 150,000 were eligible to participate.

 

Merced High is now eligible to be a division finalist. T-Mobile will announce 40 division finalists on Oct. 8 with 10 schools from the East, West, Midwest and South selected. Public voting will take place from Oct. 8 through Oct. 25. Each of those 40 schools will receive $25,000. 

 

There will be four division champions scheduled to be announced on Oct. 29. Those winners will receive $250,000, a Gronk Fitness gym and a $5,000 student leadership award. 

 

T-Mobile is scheduled to announce 40 division finalists on Oct. 8, with 10 schools selected from each of four divisions: East, West, Midwest and South. Each of those 40 schools will receive $25,000 and a T-Mobile home game celebration. Public voting will run from Oct. 8 through Oct. 25. The division champion round of voting will be held through Nov. 8 for those four schools. 

 

Four division champions are scheduled to be announced Oct. 29. Each will receive $250,000, a Gronk Fitness gym and a $5,000 student leadership award. Voting among those four schools will continue through Nov. 8. 

 

The overall winner will be announced on Nov. 12 and that school will receive $1 million toward improvements to its home football field, along with additional prizes.

 

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.