"SAN JOSE History will be made on Saturday night at Harker. For the first time in known Northern California history, two Bay Area high school teams will play a showcase indoor girls volleyball game in an outdoor football stadium. The field at Harker will host the home Eagles and visiting Branham in what Harker has dubbed the Battle on the Turf, a homecoming contest held in lieu of a traditional homecoming football game."
"Harker's football team has struggled with a low number of players this year, and holding a traditional homecoming game proved to be unfeasible. With an opening on the calendar, the school decided to pivot to a special volleyball match inspired by what Nebraska put together in 2023, when the Cornhuskers' women's volleyball team hosted 92,003 fans for a match against Omaha at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln."
"Ever since we saw Nebraska do it a few years ago, I talked to our administrators and I talked to our athletic director, and I said, This is something we would like to do too. We can pull this off,' Harker coach Theresa Smith said. Every year, we'd toss it out. And it is quite an undertaking. So it's not a simple task to set this up, but it was in the works."
Harker will host a pioneering outdoor indoor-volleyball showcase called the Battle on the Turf, with the home Eagles facing Branham as a homecoming alternative. The event replaces a traditional football homecoming because the football team has too few players this year. The school modeled the match on Nebraska's 2023 outdoor volleyball event that drew 92,003 fans. Harker will install a subsurface and sport court material, hold Harker Day festivities, run pregame spirit activities, and stage a halftime show after the second set. Both teams will practice on the outdoor surface and contingency plans exist for changing weather and surface issues.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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