Marty James Napa Valley Register | Posted: Friday, October 8, 2010 12:00 am

One of the first people to welcome Vacaville High School head football coach Mike Papadopoulos to the new Memorial Stadium for tonight’s key Monticello Empire League game will be Ed Barwick.

Now in his 38th year as the stadium’s public address announcer for Napa High games, Barwick will do his pregame homework by asking Papadopoulos for his starting lineups. He’ll also ask the Bulldogs’ coach what he thinks of the 6,400-seat stadium, which features an artificial turf field and opens for the first time tonight in a matchup of Northern California-ranked schools.

“This is an unbelievable stadium and it took the support of the community to make it happen,” said Barwick, a 1944 Napa High graduate who is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. “The old one was already an excellent stadium with a great reputation. But the new one is going to be one of the most beautiful ones around the state, particularly for high school.”

Everything about Memorial Stadium is new — it’s also bigger and better. The entrance and plaza area at the south end, the team rooms at the north end, the bleachers on the east and west sides, the press boxes, elevators, the concession buildings, the goal posts, and the scoreboard are all new.

The stadium on Menlo Avenue was rebuilt, thanks to the passage of Measure G in November of 2006. The old Memorial Stadium — which served the community for 58 years and gained national recognition from The Sporting News and ESPNRISE.comas one of the top places in the country for high-school football — was torn down in late December and early January. It was an aging facility that required continual structural repair work. Just about everything came out — the cement bleachers, Quonset huts and grass field.

“People always hate to see things disappear that were a big part of their life. But this stadium is just going to be top notch,” said Les Franco, a former Napa and Vintage head football coach. “I’m really excited about what they’ve done.

“It’s going to be great for fans, it’s going to be great for the players. The kids are going to love it because they’re going to be walking into a great facility.”

Barwick will have one of the best seats in the house tonight — right on the 50-yard line, high above the bleachers, as he announces from the press box on the east side. He’ll have a commanding view of the field and will no longer have to lean out of the booth to see the action on the field.

“This is a landmark evening for the city of Napa, no question about it,” said Barwick, a former Napa City Mayor and council member. “This stadium will be lasting for many, many decades.

“It’s going to make people so proud — not just Napa, but Vintage people, too, when they first get to see it. This is a great community asset and it was done by the support of the people on the bond issue, which is a hard thing to get passed. But they did it because they knew there was a need.”

The new stadium doesn’t look anything like the old one, but in my opinion it will have a new type of charm and intimacy and character. The finished product is one that the town can take great pride in and it’s one that should be seen by Marie M. Ishida, the CIF Executive Director, and Pete Saco, Commissioner of the Sac-Joaquin Section. Other section commissioners from around the state should also plan to stop here and check it out.

It’s the best stadium for high school football and soccer that I have seen, and I’ve been covering sports since the mid ’70s. Every seat is first-rate.

“When the lights come on and the sky goes dark, it just sparkles, where you never had that before,” said Don Evans, the director of school planning and construction for the Napa Valley Unified School District. “It’s going to be very special. I fully believe that as it’s used and word gets out, it will be one of those fields that everybody will say, ‘Can we build something like Napa’s got?’ ”

Evans hit a grand slam with this stadium, which is one of the finest in the state. Athletes will feel like they’re on top of the world when they step on the new field.

“I think it’s going to be the best high school stadium in Northern California,” said Dave Shipp, Vintage High’s athletic director. “I think people are just going to be thrilled. They’re going to walk in and their jaws are going to drop. They’re just really going to experience a great venue for high school football.”

In the two or three hours I spent at the stadium Thursday, I found myself just staring at everything, taking it all in.

Napa High principal Barb Franco’s first reaction upon touring the new venue yesterday was breathtaking.

“It will absolutely take people’s breath away when they walk in here for the first time and see how amazing this facility is and how grateful we are for the community of Napa to have this happen for us,” she said.

Work on the stadium continued throughout the day Thursday, as workers poured concrete in the northeast corner and finished installing railings in the bleachers, grooming the field, and testing the sound system. Crews have been on the job seven days a week for the last few weeks, some of them starting at 5:30 a.m. and leaving at 9 p.m. They’ve turned on the stadium lights to get their work done.

“It’s the nicest high school stadium by far,” said Frank Humpert, the longtime trainer for Napa High football and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. “Everything has been done very well, as you can see. This is great for Vintage and Napa.”

The centerpiece of the complex is the synthetic field, which will sit four feet below the team room areas, located at the north end, eight feet below the promenade deck in the stands, and four feet below the plaza area. FieldTurf Duraspine PRO, the same product that the NFL’s New England Patriots play on at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., was installed. The scoreboard is located above the entrance area, which is one of the key features of the facility.

“This is the kind of venue you dream about to come play in,” said Megan Actkinson, the senior project engineer for Flintco., Inc., the general contractor for the project. “We’re proud to have built it. Everybody’s just plugged away. The subcontractors out here were amazing. The subs out here have worked tirelessly without complaint. There’s just been a real sense of community. They knew they had to get it done for this game and they did it.

“It’s just such a huge sense of accomplishment.”

Ticket booths and additional restrooms are part of the upgrades. The modernized complex — which was designed by Jay Beals & Associates from Sacramento and Quattrocchi Kwok Architects from Santa Rosa — will cost just under $13 million.

“Coming into this week was a little nerve wracking,” said Justin Kilbride, construction manager for RGM and Associates, which is building the complex. “But every day was just a new milestone. It’s a good feeling — we pulled it off. It was a great design to begin with and a great finished product to end with.”

As he takes his spot in the press box tonight, Barwick will turn on the switch to the PA and welcome what is expected to be a big crowd.

“It’s great to welcome the people that are here, because I know that those people contributed to seeing that the bond issue passed, because it’s public support,” said Barwick, 84.

E-mail Napa Valley Register Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.comor call 256-2223