UPDATE: Friday Night Lights Just Went Out
A response from Crescent Valley High School...
You never know what you’re going to get when you post a story, but importance to the community can often (but not always) be measured in the number of reads it gets. Our original “Friday Night Lights Went Out” post is now showing over 16,000 unique views… these are geographic views within a 25-mile radius of Corvallis.
So to us, it is worth a follow-up. The Crescent Valley High School Athletic Department kindly issued a response to explain in more detail as to why the school will no longer participate in T-Mobile’s 2026 Friday Night 5G Lights competition.
“We’re incredibly grateful to T-Mobile and proud of the community support that helped Crescent Valley earn the $5,000 Friday Night 5G Lights award. After reviewing what would be required to continue pursuing the larger competition, we have determined that we do not currently have the staffing capacity or a sufficiently developed plan for managing the many additional pieces involved.
We also had the benefit of learning from Lebanon High School’s experience in the competition last year. Their experience reinforced that this is much more than simply entering a contest. A serious effort requires sustained coordination around communications, social media and content creation, community engagement, voting efforts, event management, and potentially significant facilities planning if a school advances.
At the same time, our district is working through other significant facility priorities, including securing funding to address the roof failure at Osborn Aquatic Center. We need to be thoughtful about where we direct limited staff time, organizational attention, and resources.
Our athletic department and school administration already carry significant responsibilities, and taking on an initiative of this size without a clearly mapped-out strategy, defined ownership of the different pieces, and additional capacity would create considerable strain on the system.
We certainly understand the excitement around the opportunity and share the disappointment that we are not continuing. We also believe that if we take on something of this magnitude, we need to have the structure in place to do it well.”
Every battle on the field has an opposing side. This battle consists of two sides as well. There is the side of parents, players, students, and supporters who want to continue the competition. After all, Lebanon High School, last year, became Oregon’s Cinderella story in the same competition.
Lebanon was selected as one of 25 national finalists. They spent weeks mobilizing students, staff, parents, businesses, and anyone else willing to click a voting button.
Lebanon accumulated 1,457,848 votes and finished second in the nation, behind Dierks High School in Arkansas. T-Mobile ultimately awarded Lebanon an additional $100,000 for its runner-up finish.
The other side was echoed through the school’s official statement and, surprisingly, some social media responses. We combed through the contest rules pretty in-depth. There are many obligations to continuing in the contest.
A lot of these obligations echoed what the Athletic Department said in terms of the “considerable strain on the system” and that “our district is working through other significant facility priorities, including securing funding to address the roof failure at Osborn Aquatic Center. We need to be thoughtful about where we direct limited staff time, organizational attention, and resources.”
It might be said that if there is a will, there is a way. Lebanon found a way. We talked to a few people involved in their campaign from last year. A lot of it centered around volunteer time from teachers, coaches, students, and other members of the community.
Did it strain their system? Yes. Did they find a way? Yes. Was the resource allocation worth it to them? Yes. Does Crescent Valley High School operate under different financial constraints? Yes.
You can read the original post here:
This article was written by Derek S., a contributor to The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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