I made my first real visit to West High’s new football stadium a week ago Friday, and yes, I was mighty impressed.

Earlier, I had seen the stadium from the West High parking lot during the day, but sitting in the home-side stands for a nighttime football game really gave me a good look at what has to be one of the finest high school football fields anywhere.

The multicolored artificial turf, the all-weather running track, the home-side and visitor-side aluminum bleachers and even the press box all appeared first class, indeed.

I went to the West High-Oakdale High game to take a look at the new stadium, but also to see the stadium officially named for longtime West football coach Steve Lopez. There were Steve, Diane and their three sons out in the center of the field to receive the support of many former players and applause from the people in the stands. An exciting moment for all.

In making his brief remarks, Steve brought some smiles to the faces in the crowd when he said, "I’m just happy the name of the stadium isn’t Steve Lopez Memorial Stadium."

Steve was the first to say the stadium dedication wasn’t only for him. The entire West High community — and there are thousands of Tracyites with ties to the school — felt a sense of pride and accomplishment in realizing the long-sought-after stadium was at last a reality.

The only problem I experienced at the new Steve Lopez Stadium was the public-address system. The sound coming from the speakers at the south side of the home-side bleachers — those nearest to where I was sitting — seemed unclear and muffled, a problem I found surprising for a new facility.

An amazing angle on the new West High sports facilities — the stadium and the Olympic-size swimming pool — is that those facilities will be duplicated almost exactly at John C. Kimball High School, under construction on Lammers Road just south of 11th Street. Talk about having twin state-of-the-art sports facilities in the same town.

Tracy High has Wayne Schneider Stadium with its natural-turf field and dirt running track. On that turf, Wayne and Judy Schneider were honored Sept. 12 at the start of the first home game of the season, a wild one against Los Banos. The dedication was the successful result of broad community support to rename the stadium for the retired Tracy High coach.

And while Tracy High’s stadium isn’t the brand-new facility at West, the home-side bleachers and lights, mostly financed by private contributions in the 1980s, are still quality facilities. The turf on the field, which because of the opening of West’s stadium is getting much less use than it has in recent years, looks as good as I’ve seen it in the past decade. We’ll have to see if it holds up through the next couple of months.

Pastoral milestone

Meanwhile, over at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, parishioners are continuing to celebrate the parish’s centennial year. I dropped by the St. Bernard’s Fall Festival on Sunday afternoon, and the crowds were still there on the third day of the fest, which featured historical centennial displays.

In addition to the parish centennial, there is another milestone this year at St. Bernard’s. Msgr. Ivo Rocha, the church’s pastor since 1984, has quietly chalked up 24 years as pastor, making him the longest-serving pastor in the parish’s first 100 years. His time in pastoral grade exceeds the 23 years served by his predecessor, Msgr. Eugene Shea.

Msgr. Rocha’s 24 years follows a tradition of pastoral longevity at St. Bernard’s. Beginning with the parish founder, the Rev. Thomas Moran, in 1908, St. Bernard’s has had only 13 pastors in a century, which must be some kind of record — in the Stockton Catholic Diocese at the very least.

Gear Jammers

Those photos of the Tracy Gear Jammers Motorcycle Club that appeared in Wednesday’s Our Town section of the Press should bring some old-time Tracyites to the Tracy Historical Museum Sunday afternoon.

Bill Carter, who secured the photos at the Carnegie off-road vehicle park, has scheduled an informal session from 1 to 4 p.m. for Tracyites to view the photos and possibly identify some of bikers and biker babes in them. I even recognized several familiar faces myself.

As a kid, I can remember the Gear Jammers roaring around town on their Harleys and Indian bikes. As a student at Central School, I can vividly recall seeing Willie Corso, who lived across the street on Eaton Avenue, taking off from the driveway of the Corso home on his cycle.

• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.