We respectfully ask Crescent Valley High School and the Corvallis School District to reconsider, meet with interested community volunteers, and give us the opportunity to build a workable plan to keep CV in the competition for T-Mobile's Friday Night 5G Lights Promotion. The community is ready to support CV on this endeavor.

Crescent Valley High School recently was awarded a $5000 prize for the $5K Friday Sweepstakes, the first round on T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights program that awards prizes to rural high schools across the US. In 2025 Lebanon High School went to the final rounds, earning $130,000 towards their sports programs.  We were disappointed to learn that school administration at CV decided to not continue with the program, citing staffing limitations and the need to focus on other district priorities.

The social media campaign has so far been entirely run by parent volunteers. Logistical requirements may go beyond what is described in the FN5GL Playbook explaining the promotion in further detail, however it remains unclear what is actually required at this point.  The next step will be the division finals, for which 40 schools are selected for 4 separate regions and comes with a $25,000 prize.

Per T-Mobile, CV has not officially withdrawn from the program as of August 20, and the only thing currently stopping the campaign is a go-ahead by CVHS and Corvallis School District.  

The district  response on this matter is as follows, received August 14:

"We’re incredibly grateful to T-Mobile and proud of the community support that helped Crescent Valley earn the $5,000 Friday Night 5G Lights award. After reviewing what would be required to continue pursuing the larger competition, we have determined that we do not currently have the staffing capacity or a sufficiently developed plan for managing the many additional pieces involved.

We also had the benefit of learning from Lebanon High School’s experience in the competition last year. Their experience reinforced that this is much more than simply entering a contest. A serious effort requires sustained coordination around communications, social media and content creation, community engagement, voting efforts, event management, and potentially significant facilities planning if a school advances.

At the same time, our district is working through other significant facility priorities, including securing funding to address the roof failure at Osborn Aquatic Center. We need to be thoughtful about where we direct limited staff time, organizational attention, and resources.

Our athletic department and school administration already carry significant responsibilities, and taking on an initiative of this size without a clearly mapped-out strategy, defined ownership of the different pieces, and additional capacity would create considerable strain on the system.

We certainly understand the excitement around the opportunity and share the disappointment that we are not continuing. We also believe that if we take on something of this magnitude, we need to have the structure in place to do it well."

We would like to know, what is required to continue at each stage of the competition? How much school or district staff time is actually required? What work can be handled by parents and community volunteers? If CV advances, at what point would additional commitments or approvals be required?

We have faced unprecedented funding shortages in Corvallis schools, and short of extraordinary circumstances we believe money should not be left on the table.

To keep CV in the game, post "@crescentvalleyfootball @tmobile #Entry #fn5gl" on Instagram or X (Twitter)