It’s a new era at Badin High School, as gone are the days of clashing green and blue on Friday nights.
The Matandy Sportsplex, which will serve as the home of Badin football and men’s and women’s soccer, is set to open for competition in the fall of 2025, and as of today, it is just about completely finished.
If you’ve driven on Hamilton-New London Road over the past two years, you’ve seen the active construction zone, which has now disappeared. All that’s left is the ticking clock for Badin’s first home game in Week 3 against Edgewood. Their season opener, ironically enough, takes place at Hamilton High School against the Big Blue, where they have played the lion’s share of their home games for a long time.
“We’ve played home games at Edgewood, Lakota East, Monroe,” Badin head football coach Nick Yordy told The Hamiltonian. “We’ve played home games at everybody else’s facility for 60 years, and then once that became more difficult, it really forced us to look at these options.”
The straw that broke the camel’s back in pushing this facility from idea to plan was, ironically enough, buses. When the girls’ soccer team wasn’t able to secure buses for a home game at a school like Monroe, players were forced to drive themselves, putting their safety in question and, secondarily, putting the school in a tough spot regarding liability.
Soon enough, not having a dedicated Badin facility no longer made sense.
“Being in a position with our alumni and community to really buy into this and support it, it really just steamrolled,” Yordy said. “It didn’t happen overnight. There was a lot of planning, lots of talk, all those types of things. A lot of people worked together and made it happen.”
Now, perched on top of the hill that once held the football team’s practice “field”—which was more or less a patch of grass—sits a beautiful stadium that has been decades in the making.
The Matandy Sportsplex features the typical amenities a newly built high school stadium should: a turf field, a video board, locker rooms, a coach’s office, and more. But what sets Badin’s facility apart from others is the adjacent practice turf field, which Yordy says is his favorite part. The flexibility it brings for all of the Rams’ athletic programs will pay off quickly.
“I was here. I played on the field that was just a big dirt circle in the middle,” Yordy said. “Then came back and had an opportunity to coach here and was still practicing on the same field I practiced on 30 years ago.
“They were probably tired of hearing from me and the other coaches about what we were dealing with on a regular basis—holes in our practice field where kids could have broken their legs. We would have to put pads up to form a barrier in certain areas. If they got close to [that spot on the field], they just stopped because it was unsafe. There was a sprinkler system up here. Some of them would work, some of ‘em wouldn’t. So if they tried to turn a sprinkler on and one didn’t pop up, it flooded that part of the ground. It was a safety aspect, too.”
Another unique aspect is the VIP room located next to the concession stand. The school plans to use the space to host parties or reunions during games, as well as rent it out for fundraising opportunities during the season. The room features two 65-inch televisions that will broadcast the game, as well as a garage door that will slide open for attendees to come and go as they please, similar to a suite at a professional sports stadium.
The main entrance from the parking lot behind the school has a college football feel to it, and Yordy said there will soon be a large ram head statue located there to greet fans entering the stadium. Badin is also planning to sell reserved parking spots for tailgaters to use throughout the football season.
Yordy said the school’s president, Brian Pendergest, athletic director Geoff Melzer, and lead fundraiser Chuck McKinney were some of the most influential people in bringing the stadium to life.
Alumni and former players have been hounding Yordy, asking why they couldn’t have had such a nice facility during their time at Badin. But they can rest assured knowing that the players who do have the Matandy Sportsplex at their disposal will appreciate and take care of it.
“We’re very fortunate to have a facility like this. In my opinion, it’s one of the best in the state when you get up here and see it,” Yordy said. “There will be an emphasis on our kids—they’re not going to leave garbage lying around. There’s not gonna be stuff lying on the fields. We’re still learning that because it is new. But it’s something that I think a lot of people have a sense of pride in.”
Badin has been one of the most consistently successful football programs in all of Southwest Ohio for a long time. Just in the past decade, they’ve posted a record of 98-36—good for a 73.1% winning percentage. Yordy and his program accomplished that while fighting an uphill battle regarding their facilities, or lack thereof.
Don’t be surprised if the Rams are better over the next 10 years than they were over the past 10.
The Matandy SportsPlex includes the Coach Terry Malone Field at the Lanni Family Stadium. It will seat 2,400 spectators, with bleachers on both sides of the field. There is an 8-lane track; ticket booths, restrooms and concessions on both sides of the stadium and locker rooms for football, boys soccer and girls soccer.
A girl/boy soccer doubleheader will open the stadium on Friday, August 15, as the Badin girls take on Summit Country Day at 5 p.m., and the boys face Elder at 7 p.m. The first home football game is Friday, September 5, against Edgewood at 7 p.m.