Have you been to a Central High Eagles football game lately? Central Eagle football has a history of success, championships, and hard-nosed football. Did you happen to notice the old and outdated sound system present at the stadium? What we don’t have a history in… is an awesome sound system at the stadium! Of course, the sound system at the stadium was a great setup – 20 years ago, but technology has come a long way since then and it’s time to upgrade!

Change Desired: An Energized Environment
New head coach, Trent Usher, has stated that one of his desired changes is to create a new and energized environment on Friday nights. Obviously, this will depend on fans, the booster club, cheerleaders, the band, etc., but one way we can help create this environment is to put a new sound system in place. Yes, this is a big project to undertake, but it is one worth undertaking and would enhance the environment at the games and be enjoyed by everyone.

I’m posting this blog in hopes of helping get the word out about this project.

The Outdated System
Seriously, what year was the old system installed? It’s been a while. If you’ve been to a game lately then you know the sound system is not the greatest. If you’ve ever been inside the press box during the game then you may have seen how music is played… they literally play music on an iPhone and hold the microphone from the sound system up to the iPhone to get songs to be played over the loud speakers! So yes, we have room to improve.

The New System
We’ve reached out to multiple vendors and have settled on working with Verge Multimedia for the new system. Verge has provided a quote that entails removal of the old sound system, installation of the new sound system, and training on the system. The system has several components, but has 3 primary large speakers which will be placed on the press box. You can see the visuals from the proposal included below.

The bid total is $12,500. This amount has factored in a discount for 501 c3 Tax Exempt organizations since this will be working through the Football Club which is affiliated with the school.

Interested in more details Download the full proposal.

How You Can Help
Yes, this will take money, $12,500 to be exact. We are reaching out to former students, athletes, alumni, and local businesses in hopes of gaining the needed financial support for the new system. (So help us spread the word in all your social channels) The presence of the new system will reflect the support for the Eagles and sign of a community engaged with their local high school.

To contribute you’ll need to write a check or give cash to the Touchdown Club. These can be sent to the school or given to Courtney Usher. Please note that if you would like a receipt (for tax write-off purposes) we can provide you with one.

Want an official document on Central High School letterhead? Download the Fundraising Document

If you have questions or want more info on this just contact me on Twitter or here through my contact page or reach out to Courtney Usher on Facebook.

Help us take steps to restore the tradition of winning, success, and a great environment at Central

As you may know, we’ve been helping farmers out with nuisance hogs lately. Early this week we continued this mission and had one of the best nights of hog hunting we’ve had to date. It has been amazing to see the damage these creatures are doing to crop fields in our local area.

Also, SCDNR should be commended because they worked quickly with farmers and us to gain depredation permits to help control the crop destruction by these hogs. We always try to abide by the laws and regulations and hunt ethically. So kudos to SCDNR for assisting with this problem and working efficiently.

The First Hog
Gavin and I arrived to the farm around 9pm and upon arrival there was nothing on the corn pile. I state this because recently hogs had been coming in as the sun went down, but that only seemed to be for the few weeks following the arrival of little ones (piglets). Now they are going back to their night routines.

We hadn’t been in the field long when we started seeing deer. Thus far in our experiences at this farm the deer tend to stay away from areas hogs are in and they hadn’t been eating the corn too much. However, on this night the deer went to the corn pile. They ate for a while and some left, but one deer remained longer than the others. As the deer was eating I saw hogs approaching in the woods from the left. I wondered what would happen in this scenario. I figured the hogs would startle the deer and scare it off. However, it was exactly the opposite. I couldn’t believe it when the deer blew and the hogs ran off into the woods! Unfortunately, I did not catch this on video.

Time passed and the deer finally left the corn pile. Gavin and I were whispering to each other about how we couldn’t believe that a deer just ruined our hog hunt. We were already planning for the next time if we had a deer come out we would flash lights at it or something to make it move. We were kicking ourselves out there in the field while the deer walked towards us. In this scenario, we had a perfect wind. It was hitting us in our faces so the deer/hogs couldn’t smell us at all. Surprisingly the deer got close and closer to us and at it’s closest was about 20 yards away. I got some extremely close video of this deer. Eventually the deer passed us and we started the hog watch again.

We were sitting there watching some raccoons when I noticed more heat coming through the woods. I told Gavin to get ready. Sure enough the hogs came out and got on the pile. They weren’t there too long before something startled them and again we were frustrated. Though, this time they came back relatively quickly.

When a group of hogs are on the corn pile and very close together it’s hard to discern what is what. That is, you could be shooting at a hog’s head, rear quarters, vital area, non-vital area, etc. and not really know because everything blends together. This is why it’s good to spread corn out in a long line or across a wide area. On this hunt the majority of the corn had already been eaten so there wasn’t much left to spread the hogs out. So it all came down to time and patience. It was a waiting game.

Eventually the biggest hog in the group separated itself and I told Gavin to hold on because it was fixing to happen. I put the crosshairs on the hog and started squeezing off very slowly in hopes of ensuring a smooth trigger pull. A few seconds later the big hog was on the ground and the remaining hogs had retreated into the woods. I hoped to get off more than one shot, but by the time I was able to get back on any hogs in the scope there wasn’t a good shot to be had so I held off. This hunt was a true test of patience.

The Second and Third Hog
We made a trip to the processor to drop the hog off and then headed to another field. Here again nuisance hogs were devastating a local farmer’s crop field. We sat and sat and sat. We knew the hogs were causing big problems, but yet nothing had shown for nearly 2 hours. Then we saw a bobcat stroll along the edge of the field. It was neat to see the bobcat’s movements.

Gavin and I were both starting to yawn and the clock was getting close to 1am. We were somewhat frustrated that nothing was showing when we knew they were somewhere very close by. Gavin said “Ok buddy, we’re going to give it another 10 minutes and then we’re leaving”. He had resorted to reading random FaceBook posts to pass time and I was scanning in a monocular.

As I’d been scanning the field earlier in the evening I had seen heat signatures from electrical units, random lights, birds in trees, and just other objects that were giving off heat. I made mental notes of these so that I didn’t get excited every time I saw them. On a side note, for some reason it’s easy to get a little disoriented when looking through night vision. I don’t mean like get lost, but rather it’s harder to gauge distance and you can get a little turned around. I say this because as I scanned I saw some heat signatures near where I’d previously seen other signatures. It was late and we were tired and I thought to myself that I remember seeing heat signatures on this side of the field, but not really that many.

Then I saw one of them move.

It was one of the most interesting sights I’ve seen while hunting. I watched 12 hogs come across the top of a hill in a line. It was almost like a scene from a Braveheart movie and they were coming at a pretty good clip. I told Gavin to get in the gun. He put his phone and way and got in the gun. I said “Look to the right” and he spun the gun directly in front of us and I saw where he was looking and said “No you’re other right… to the right! To the right!” I grew frustrated with him quickly because I was seeing what was happening and he couldn’t find them. Finally, he turned to where the hogs were and I believe he said, “Oh my God!”.

Gavin counted the hogs and said, “Man look there are 12 hogs in that pack!”. The hogs were milling around and coming towards us, but they were also arching towards a side of the field that we couldn’t shoot towards. I talked to Gavin and told him that if we were patient we could potentially have a very close encounter. We discussed it, but ultimately, we decided to go ahead and start shooting because we couldn’t predict where the hogs were going to go and we didn’t want to completely miss out on a chance to shoot them in the case that they continued heading the wrong direction. I told Gavin to go ahead and let her fly.

From watching the group, we could easily tell that the biggest hog was on the far left and he just happened to be the closest one to us. Gavin waited on the hog to move to just the right angle and then he buckled that rascal to his knees. As soon as he shot the remaining hogs took off to the left. The video will illustrate this better than I can here with words, but it was a sight to be seen. Gavin continued peppering the hogs as they ran. From watching the video, we believe he hit more than 2, but there was one hog that reversed course and started coming back towards the top of the hill. In the end, Gavin dropped it as well. It was an impressive shooting display from my point of view so props to Gavin “The Chesterfield County Hawg Whisperer” Jackson for getting it done.

By the end of the night we’d shot 3 hogs and had a ton of fun! We’d like to again give shout outs to SCDNR for working with us to get the depredation permit, Reel Determined Outdoors for handling all our artillery & gear needs, Anderson Rifles for making a great gun, and Pulsar for making top-notch thermal equipment that makes all this possible.

If you have hog problems, let us know and we can assist! Contact us on the site, Twitter, or Facebook.