Baldwin High School has moved into the next stage of T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights competition, and the prize money is already real. The school has received $25,000 as a division finalist and is now trying to finish the job through public voting before Oct. 25.
That matters because the winner of the national competition can take home $1 million for a facility upgrade, while the division champion gets $250,000, a weight room upgrade and a $5,000 scholarship for one student. Baldwin High was one of 40 division finalists chosen from 2,500 schools, a cut that makes the contest feel less like a giveaway and more like a weekly race decided by votes.
Dayton Valentine, who entered the school into the competition this year, said the money would go a long way in a place that still has one glaring gap. “Currently, we have zero lights at Baldwin High School, and this has been a huge problem for us,” he said, adding that people often take for granted having lights on a football or soccer field. He said the school could look at adding lights to its soccer field if it keeps advancing.
By Oct. 13, Baldwin was sitting in second place in the Midwest division behind McClain High School of Greenfield, Ohio, even though it was the only competitor left from Kansas in that bracket. That leaves Baldwin with a simple but difficult task: stay in the voting race long enough to overtake the school ahead of it and become one of four schools still eligible for the $250,000 division prize.
The school is already weighing what it could do with the $25,000 it has in hand. Valentine said it could go toward football uniforms or bigger-ticket needs such as offensive line training sleds, while a deeper run could open the door to lights, turf or other facility upgrades. For Baldwin, the next vote is not just about moving on. It is about whether the school can turn a cash prize into something the athletes can see and use every Friday night.
