O.C. football: Best stadium?
October 27th, 2009, 11:26 am · 59 Comments · posted by Damian Calhoun, OCVarsity.com since 2004
What Orange County football stadium is the best?
Some venues house only one program and have an identity closely tied to that particular team. Others are called home by a few schools, so they could have widespread support and even could get rivals to agree on something.
And, like all things, what you consider the best is based so much on taste. Do you prefer a big stadium with nice amenities? Or is a small place with an intimate feel more your style?
We'll make our choices soon, but now is your opportunity to let us know what you think. Use the comments field below to nominate your favorite stadium and tell us why you think it's the best in Orange County.
RELATED:
Who are the best fans in Orange County football?
What program has the best traditions in Orange County football?
What team has the best uniforms in Orange County football?
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OC H.S. Sports
The new Cap Sheue/HBHS is awsome.
I have not been to the new Westminister, but HBHS has got to be the best on campus stadium in the OC.
I have filmed games in many of the stadiums in Orange County, from the old to the new. I have seen very poor facilities as well as state of the art. My video crew and I film about 60 games a season for various football programs. For pure viewership, the Santa Ana bowl has to be tops. For history, nothing beats Newport Harbor's Davidson field. However, for high school football excitement My favorite place is Jim Scott Stadium home of the Costa Mesa Mustangs. It has all new facilities, turf, a great sound system, fantastic score board and a tremendous press box. BUT, the best part of the Mustang Corral is by far, the sunset view over looking the city of Huntington Beach from high on the bluff. The sun setting behind the 75ft palm trees and the city lights is breath taking. Yes for football atmosphere and pure beauty, nothing I have seen beats the backdrop of the Mustang Corral, Jim Scott Stadium in Costa Mesa,
santa ana bowl hands down. like the pit in la habra your right on top of everything,and its bigger and more modern than the pit
Bradford Stadium @ Valencia High
Theres always a game there every week whether it be Valencia, ElDo or Esperanza playing there and its field turf, almost new
ye but they are really saying a sitting arrangement and Bradford Stadium @ Valencia High dosnt really have a good seating.
Davidson Field at Newport Harbor is the best. Great natural turf field and a big stadium. Its old so the tradition is there, but has been kept up great over the years. Any stadium that has the artificial turf goes behind natural grass fields.
Access in and out sucks, but Tesoro's stadium is in a beautiful setting. Especially early in the season before the time change.
As I recall, Bradford has light poles between the stands and the field. Folks sitting on the visitors side have the pleasure of a scissor lift blocking their view at the 50 yard line. (My last time there was 2006)
The visitors side at Laguna Hills has great sunset views early in the season.
Now, if you want to put out a poll for the worst stadiums..............
Tesoro: definitely one of the most beautiful backdrops i've had the privelege of playing in front of.
Davidson because both the home and visitor sides have great sight lines to the field and the bleachers are wood not aluminum. Not to mention a grass field!!
What are you smoking thirtyplus? Tesoro's stadium sucks. Nice setting, yes, but they totally blew it by not making it big enough. So much so that they had to bring in temporary seating to host a CIF play-off game. Parking is also a nightmare. Tesoro gets my vote for one of the worst by far.
I second that one. If there was ever a fire in the hills (God Forbid) you can never get out!!!
The seating might work well for the home team, but the visitors are extremely limited. Not a lot of forethought there.
Now that construction is done Trabuco Hills Stadium is even better than before. Plenty of parking, lots of seating on both sides. Visitor side has easier access, bathrooms and snack bar.
MIssion Viejo has the nicest on campus stadium, its pretty impressive.
what about the LH Pit? Its small...yes, but the atmosphere is amazing! Fryer loves going to the games at the Pit himself.
as for worst i have been too. San Clemente's field is nice. But having to hike it in and side behind some massive poles is not so fun. Fullertons stadium is adequate, except for the away seating...its concrete.
The lights and PA system at Fullerton is terrible. The parking is limited and don't park at teh college without paying your $2.00 or you will have a nice parking ticket. The school district needs to invest some money into all of the district stadiums.
your wrong here kid, if your using the light poles as reasoning. san clemente is almost perfect. great location with fog rolling in ,built against the hill facing the ocean.what more could you ask for . and film taken there is like watching an abc production.
Fans are great at LH but the parking and visitor seating is awful!
MV's stadium is nice, but not as good as Newport Harbor...LH has already been mentioned as one of the better ones...Trabuco is good and much better than Tesoro's in terms of view, access and now parking (not quite as good as MV but close). Bradford Stadium is still bad even with the new field. Should have kept the grass if you ask me and kept it the homefield dirt pit advantage it once was. Can only put so much lipstick on a pig, yet its still a pig.
What? Does not everyone agree that it is "THE PIT"? La Habra built the place for football ONLY. no track, no soccer field, just football. You are so close to the players you can hear them talking to the coach from 5 rows back. And all of that without mentioning the amount of noise that can be created from the fans and bands. An intense place for a game.
Davidson Field. It's the Coliseum of OC high school football.
I have been going to games there since the mid seventies, it seems that nothing has changed.
Fullerton's Stadium has great size it can seat in the 4500-5500 range.
However the concrete seats blow!
yes they do!
*Correction:
The actual max capacity of the stadium is 6,700. I expect no less than that when the Fullerton-La Habra game rolls around...THAT WILL BE INTENSE!
yeah 6000 la habra faithful.you guys are 1/4 of fullertons population so I expect to see a puddle of red comparable to a buena park away crowd.
Yes, the game will be the most exciting game in the Freeway division for this year. If only the lights were a little brighter.
not division, Freeway Leauge
La Habra High School's Pit is the best stadium for fans to get up close and personal with the game and players, San Clemente Stadium is awesome,.......Im a bighsfootballfan so i go with La Habra!!
well we need cal state ful to lower rate more cap
Well Fullerton District stadium is definitely huge and i think anyone would fear that place being full with 6,000 crazy fans but Fred Kelly stadium is home to its own league! La habra's pit can be a scary place but come on. good luck getting into a big game after work. The santa ana bowl has also just become a huge representative in high school football.
As a Santa Ana lifer, "The Bowl" is the place.
But La Habra -- I love that place. Great fans, quaint, old-school feel to the stadium.
OCC is good when a the nice maintenance supervisor is there.
San Clemente is cool, too ... Western and Glover ... Mission Viejo is excellent.
Fullerton is a good one, yep.
As you can tell, I like a lot of places! But No. 1 on-campus place -- put me at La Habra.
THE BOWL IS DEFINTELY THE BEST BUT GOTTA DISAGREE WITH WESTERN AND GLOVER! THE FIELD N AWAY SIDE AT WESTERN ARE HORRIBLE! I PERSONALLY HAVE A GREAT DISLIKE FOR THE HALF-FOOTBALL/BASEBALL FIELD AND THATS WHY I DON'T LIKE GLOVER AND PLUS AWAY SIDE IS ALSO HORRIBLE! AND OCC IS ONLY NICE WHEN THERES NOWHERE ELSE TO PLAY!
MY VOTE IS THE PIT IN LA HABRA.
i can't believe nobody had even mentioned dana hills, yeah it might not be the most high quality but can you ask for a better location.
dh
Dana Hills gets my vote. It is a great location.
Have you ever sat on the visitors side... the worst I have ever seen!! It is a law suit waiting to happen. It is great on the home side but there are 2 sides of a stadium and that kills it, it sucks for visitors, it's out.
santa ana bowl gets really insane when the fourth quater rolls around especially durfing edison mater dei game. but occ get pretty intense if the stand are full.and it can hold up to 10,000 people combined both sides
no joke dana hills is byyy farrrr the nicesst stadium iv ever been too (last time i was there was 2 years ago for el dorado game)
At LaHabra you are so close you can see the players' faces through their masks. It's awesome. Santa Ana Bowl, especially when full of Monarchs has a great old time football feel. These two get my votes.
Eleven years ago, Coach Mazoda drove past by La Habra's "Pit" and new that this was the school that he wanted to build a program. It is not only a great place to watch a game, but the fan base his teams have developed makes it a challenge for any visiting team to play at.
dana hills is an awesome field. the disparity in size between the visitors' and home side stands is somewhat humorous, but you can't beat the location... you can see the ocean from the stands! and how its lowered into a bowl setting creates a great atmosphere as well.
La Habra Stadium.
Comment - Bradford Stadium - Homer announcer is the most annoying thing - even when I am there to cheer for Esperanza - he or they homer announcers make the game experience horrible.
The Pit - parking not so good - only on one side - south of stadium - and I don't like having to cross Idaho St and all of the traffic too close to stadium. And fans - get there an hour early and reserve 30 seats apiece so I always have to sit on visitor side - no, I cannot sit in the booth with S. Fryer 0 boo hoo..........
lhhman ,really have to hook up after season. now yougo from ripping coaching staff to stadium, who are you anyway.
I enjoy watching high school sports - I try to see as many games in mid and northern OC - and some in Long Beach and South Bay. I appreciate the efforts of kids. Many coaches and fans are great but I am yes, critical of some coaches and some fans. Stadiums and arenas - Yes, I do not like lousy sound systems, announcers that are too one sided and fans who think they have privilege. And yes, I hate it when the Fountain Valley - Edison game is not treated better for all. Fans should have been limited on number of tickets, maybe even a lottery and there should be some flexibility in the stadiums so the best games with the most fan interest, can be moved (with team consent) to the largest facilities.
And if you want to hookup sometime, let me know which game you are attending and I might even be there..........
And lastly, the games are for the boys - to build them up - teamwork, friendship and cooperation between schools and communities. The boys and GIRLS who compete are given a chance to grow.
OCC
Dana Hills has a truly beautiful stadium, but the visitor side is bad...
the stadium with the most history...Glover Stadium at La Palma Park home of the Colonists
1. Santa Ana Bowl (Best facility for a big game in the county)
2. La Habra (Best atmosphere in county football)
3. San Clemente (Great community support)
4. Tesoro (Beautiful with the hills as a backdrop)
5. OCC (I love watching Edison-Fountain Valley games there)
BEST-
-Laguna Beach- Best view of any stadium in the COUNTRY, not just the county. Too bad the fans are asleep.
-Newport Harbor- Cool feel of history with the wood seats and the American flags on the helmets. Nice size for a neighborhood stadium too.
-Mission V- Any stadium you can see from I-5 automatically gets points, but there is a lot of winning tradition at this place (love the helmet knock as Diablos enter), great fans, and a really unique and cool facility.
WORST-
-Irvine Stadium- Nice facility, but...is this a football stadium or a museum for the PTA?
-Tustin Northrup Field- It sort of feels like a cross between traditional and non-earthquake safe...
Like this. Good points across the board.
Not in OC but games that have been played in past years at the HOME DEPOT CENTER in Carson is the best venue for HS Football. Lots of parking, lots of seats close to action and great GRASS...
IRVINE HS
five best stadiums
1. Glover - just too classic
2. Boswell...it's really, really nice
3. Shue...its really nice too, but not as nice as boswell
4, La Habra
5. Dana Hills
From an old players point of view:
La Habra
Played 2 games there years ago: AWESOME
lahabra...if u think the atmosphere is bumpin in the stands you should step onto the field...!!!
how bout the stadium anyone rarely uses... Anaheim Stadium
Servite vs Mater dei almost every year
OCC has the best Jr College field in SoCal. Trabuco Hills HS is very fan friendly now since construction is finished. The backdrop of Saddleback MT, the field conditions, and parking makes THHS a blue print site.