Football Friday: Radnor looks forward to an eventual return home

RADNOR — Keaton Monaghan was a freshman at Radnor High in 2019, and he was complete with all the standard football visions.

He was on the freshman team that year, but by his sophomore year he expected to be on the varsity, enjoying all of the thrills of a complete high school season.

By his junior year, the Friday night games at Prevost Field would be thrilling, with up to a thousand of his friends, classmates and neighbors gathered to roar on the Raptors.

By his senior season, according to the plan, the routines would have become polished, the moments cherished, and the thrills of wearing the maroon and white in the crowded stadium hard by the school collected.

So?

“There were,” Monaghan said, “a lot of setbacks.”

The final season for Monaghan and his senior classmates will begin Saturday morning at 10 with a “home” game against West Philadelphia. It will not be on Prevost Field, but at Springfield High. That’s because for the second consecutive year, Radnor’s on-campus stadium remains under re-construction and it is not set to be in game shape before a Sept. 30 visit from Harriton.

That inconvenience followed last season when the Raptors did not play a single on-campus game due to the construction project. And that came after Monaghan’s first season when, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Raptors’ schedule was sliced to six games, there was no postseason, and the crowd sizes were limited.

“That first year was a good intro into varsity football, because I was so young,” said Monaghan, a 6-2 guard and tackle and a Raptors’ co-captain. “But last year, I was hoping things would get back to normal – except we didn’t have a field. Obviously, you have to play through that. You can’t let that stop you.”

The football-facility upgrades were a part of a greater set of renovations to the entire Radnor athletic complex that began in January, 2020. Among its purposes was to make the 55-year-old bleachers at Prevost Field more ADA compliant, but there were also upgrades to the swimming pool, weight rooms, locker rooms, snack bars and gymnasium, among other initiatives.

The plan was for the field to be ready for the beginning of last season, but that was before the Radnor Board of School Directors approved a $650,000 relocation of a water main that July. Even then, there was hope the stadium would be reopened by late last September. However, ongoing complications would cost Radnor an entire home football season.

The 2021 Raptors were forced to travel to Springfield, Ridley and Penncrest for early-season “home” games before moving to Conestoga for visits from Marple Newtown and Strath Haven. With Radnor and Conestoga only 5.5 miles apart, Teamer Field was convenient alternate home site, though a touch out of place for both Homecoming and Senior Night.

At one point during last season, there was a spark of optimism that Prevost Field would be available by Nov. 6 and the scheduled game against rival Lower Merion. When it wasn’t, the Aces hosted the 125th game in the historic series.

“I’ll always feel bad for the seniors, who just happen to be seniors when this great new facility is being built,” said then-coach Tom Ryan at the time. “It’s going to be an unbelievable facility when it’s finished, from the locker rooms on up. It’s just a bummer the seniors have to go through this.”

The optics of a homecoming unfolding at a rival Central League school were naturally clumsy. What will never be known is how much the disruption changed the direction of Radnor football. After the nomadic Raptors finished 3-9, the legendary Ryan opted for retirement, Kyle Yeiter was hired from the staff of ever-powerful Archbishop Wood and a newer system was set in motion.

“Not having home games last year didn’t help us,” said Tucker Graham, who will move from wide receiver to quarterback this season. “We had a couple of opportunities to play ‘somewhat’ home games at Conestoga.

But it definitely wasn’t the same as playing in a home stadium. We struggled to get fans out to games and stuff like that.”

With the promise of much-upgraded facilities and under the stay-positive counsel of Ryan and Yeiter, there have been no screeching protests from the players. That spirit was boosted this week when, for the first time since the bulldozing began, the Ratptors resumed practicing on a fresh, clean artificial surface, the first one at Prevost Field in 13 years. Still, there was no scoreboard, a full bank of lights was in a prone position on the sidelines and construction workers continued to hammer away at the new seating areas.

“Some things are out of our hands,” Yeiter said. “We know the district is doing all it can to have us out here as soon as possible. It’s nice that we are out here practicing. The field is beautiful. And it’s really nice that schools around here can host us.”

The West Philly game originally was scheduled for Friday night at Radnor, but needed to be rescheduled. A busy soccer event prevented a shift to Conestoga, so to Springfield the Raptors will hustle. A Sept. 9 “visit” from Garnet Valley likely will be at Conestoga, but beginning with the Harriton game, four of the Raptors’ final games will be on campus, including a Nov. 2 return visit from Lower Merion.

“It’s nice that Conestoga is close,” Yeiter said. “But, still, you would like to play in your own home.”
At least this class of Radnor seniors – unlike the last one – likely will have that experience.

“It was probably more disappointing for the seniors last year,” said Tommy DeShan, about to enter his senior season as a defensive back and wide receiver. “But we just enjoyed playing. I like playing football. It doesn’t matter where it is.”

There was recent precedent for a road-warrior Central League season, as Springfield played its 2019 “home” games at Strath Haven while its new stadium was being constructed. The reviews of the new Springfield facilities have been positive, and the Radnor project, which includes a college-level weight room overlooking the field, a new field-level visitors’ locker room and improved seating arrangements, should dazzle.

“Later this year, it’s going to be super nice,” Graham said. “We will get to play in a brand-new stadium.”

Until then, there will be more of the same. Saturday morning, the Raptors will gather at Radnor for a 7:45 bus ride to Springfield, play a game miles from home, and then make the return trip.

“We’ll still be wearing our home jerseys, which is weird,” Monaghan said. “And you use their locker room, which just isn’t the same. You don’t think about that affecting you, but really, it does. When we are at home, we have the crowd and the environment, and you’re mentally prepared. You have everything around to help you with that.”

That’s the way Keaton Monaghan and the Radnor seniors had in mind for years.

Though not immediately, they remain certain the vision soon will turn real.