ELLSWORTH — Ellsworth was selected for the T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights $5,000 prize to make an upgrade to its football field. Being selected puts the school in the running for up to $1 million.

Athletic Director Kevin Haglund said they applied a year ago and did not receive the award but tweaked the application this year.

“Given the fact that the operating referendum failed, we’re not in a situation that we’re going to go to an athletics referendum, and our facilities could use an upgrade,” Haglund said.

While the $5,000 may not be a program-altering field improvement, Haglund said they can purchase a luxury item or check a field maintenance box that they may not have been able to.

There are 1,000 schools across the country chosen during the fall for the $5,000 prize. Then, a panel selects 40 finalists from the 1,000 to land $25,000 for their school. They would also be placed into a bracket where fans will vote in October for a division champion that will win $250,000, a fitness gym from NFL legend Rob Gronkowski and a student leadership award of $5,000. The four division champions finally go into another public vote, with the winner this time securing $1 million for football field upgrades.

“That would mean a lot,” Haglund said. “Then we would start to get really serious with getting bids.”

Ellsworth was also recently named a WIAA School of Excellence for the first time in Panther history, putting the school in good company.

“The WIAA has a, ballpark, 30 checkpoints that a school has to get to say, ‘Yes, we are a school of excellence,’” Haglund said. “If you go through and check all the boxes, then you apply. I think there were 28 schools in the State of Wisconsin that got it and we were one of them.”