CHALOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — As high school football season continues, Madison County is in the throes of a different type of competition.

The Mountaineers were announced as one of the 25 finalists in T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights Competition on Sept. 25. The competition aims to highlight and provide support to rural high schools and their athletic programs across the country, with one high school receiving the grand prize of $1 million field upgrade, a renovated weight room and an all-expenses paid trip to the SEC Championship for 16 school representatives.

Madison County was one of 2,176 schools, nearly 20% of all small-town high schools in the U.S. according to T-Mobile, to apply for this year’s competition. As one of the 25 finalists, Madison County has already received $25,000 in addition to the $5,000 it, along with 449 other high schools, received in the first round of the competition.

The Mountaineers will also get to enjoy a T-Mobile sponsored home game for their Homecoming this year on Oct. 17. There, representatives from the company will come out with their mobile truck to host some games and giveaways.

Madison County Athletic Director Tim Tryon said he decided to apply for the competition after Strasburg and Clarke County High School each won $5,000 in the competition last year. He said the community has been really excited about the competition and pushing people to vote daily for the Mountaineers.

That excitement has been felt by Rico Roscigno, T-Mobile’s rural market manager for the Harrisonburg area. In his visits to the school, he said the excitement has been palpable. 

“I’m walking the hallways and students are like, ‘Yeah, we love T-Mobile,’” Roscigno told Cville Right Now, “and then the staff, they’re pointing fingers at me and they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s the T-Mobile guy.’ I mean, it’s on a different level.”

One of those excited students is Dominic Burke, a trumpet player in the marching band. He got to play with the band at the pep rally where the school announced it was a finalist, and he said the community was thrilled by the announcement.

“Everyone in our community is chipping in and it’s been a huge thing,” Burke told Cville Right Now.

Tyron said the $30,000 the school has already won will have a “huge impact,” and allow the school to purchase some new equipment they’d been trying to save up for a few years. He said the school hasn’t zeroed in on any purchases quite yet, but they’re in “the first phase of trying to figure out how to best use that money to help our kids.” 

Football head coach Larry Helmick echoed the sentiment, saying the $30,000 already won is “huge” for the school.

“We’re such a small, local community, county,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of funding. There are things that definitely need upgrading and to be renovated.”

But the main prize is still in play for the Mountaineers, and it could have a huge impact. Helmick, who played for Madison from 2002-2006, said the facilities have remained the same since he went there. The stadium, built in the 1950s by local farmers, could use the $1 million upgrade.

“We do the best with what we have and we take care of it,” Helmick said, “but it’s definitely outdated.”

Those interested in supporting Madison County can vote for the school once-a-day every day through Oct. 24 at the contest’s official website. As of 3 p.m. Thursday, the Mountaineers were in 19th place with 20,075 votes, but the competition is far from over. Last year, Inola High School in Oklahoma won after trailing almost the entire competition. As T-Mobile spokesperson Roni Singleton, assured, there’s still plenty of time.

“Vote every day, vote often, and you never know who can win,” she said.