Lawrence High football coach Dirk Wedd huddles up with the team during practice Thursday at Lawrence High. The Lions will open their season today against Shawnee Mission North on their new field.

Tonight marks the beginning of what Lawrence High coaches, fans and alumni hope and expect will be many decades of tradition-rich football on the campus of LHS.

After 78 seasons of calling Haskell Stadium home, the LHS varsity football team will play its first game in a new stadium at 7 p.m., when the Lions welcome Sunflower League foe Shawnee Mission North to town for the season opener for both teams.

Although news of the move from Haskell to 19th and Louisiana has been met with mixed emotions throughout the city, now that the venue is visible and nearly complete, some of the biggest names from LHS days past can’t help but feel nostalgic when they drive by the new venue.

“I went by there the other day. It’s pretty sweet,” 1990 LHS grad and current Kansas University defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said. “I kind of like that. It does look pretty good. I think they did a good job, and I think that’s going to be a lot of fun for those kids.”

Those thoughts were echoed by 1992 LHS graduate and current Lions assistant coach Adam Green.

“I think it’s awesome,” Green said. “It looks very, very cool. It’s just incredible that the community and the school made the commitment to a facility like this.”

While the stadium remains a work in progress, the players who will take the field tonight already see the concrete cathedral as their new home. And for guys like senior running back Tyrae Jenkins, a little orange construction fencing is not enough to take away from what promises to be a memorable night.

“It’s exciting,” Jenkins said. “We can look over at the school and really feel like we’re protecting something now. We’re playing for everybody who’s ever been through Lawrence High, who’s ever walked in that building. It’s a great feeling.”

Great is just one of the words used by 1994 LHS graduate Brad Romme, who quarterbacked the 1993 team to one of the most memorable state championship victories in school history, a dramatic, second-half comeback victory against Derby.

Although Romme said he was in favor of moving the Lions’ home field to the LHS campus, he admitted that the first few games at the new stadium might seem a little strange.

“When it’s finished, the facility is going to be beautiful,” Romme said. “But I think the main word I would use to describe the whole thing is, it’s just going to be different. Another word I would use is tough. It’s going to be tough. The bus ride, along with so many other parts about Friday nights at Haskell, was always an incredibly big part of it. And here for a while, I’m guessing it’s going to be tough for some people. But I’m sure they’ll get through it, and, in the end, it’s going to be an incredibly cool deal.

“Mostly, I’m just so happy for those seniors,” Romme continued. “They’re going to do something that nobody else who ever went to Lawrence High has done.”

With the dawning of a new era now just hours away, it seems only fitting that the man on the other sideline has been around long enough to appreciate all that tonight means. Shawnee Mission North head coach Ryan Majors has spent his share of Friday nights at Haskell Stadium. In addition to coaching at SMN for the past five years, Majors played his high school ball at Shawnee Mission West. Because of that, tonight is a special occasion for Majors, as well.

“It’s going to be weird when we get on the bus and the bus driver drives by right by Haskell,” Majors said. “Playing there was part of my high school experience, and that stadium means something to a lot of guys in this league.”

Majors’ understanding of the magnitude of tonight is not limited to his having played a few downs on the Haskell turf. Just a few years ago, Majors was the head coach at SMN when the Indians opened a brand-new, on-campus football facility of their own.

“We opened up our new stadium a few years ago, and we know what that game meant to us,” Majors said.

As for what the game means to the Lions, LHS coach Dirk Wedd didn’t have any trouble conveying that message.

“I won’t live to be there,” Wedd said. “But 50 years from now, these kids will be able to come back here and talk about what a special experience that first game was.”