Hillcrest High opens Westmark Stadium Friday night
AMMON, Idaho (KIFI) - Hillcrest High School is set to play its first high school game on their own turf on Friday night.
A ribbon cutting is set to open Westmark Stadium at 4:30 p.m.
You can watch the ribbon cutting ceremony above.
Hillcrest has played football, lacrosse, and soccer games at Bonneville High School, located five miles away, for its entire 32-year history. The Knights’ home games can now be played at home.
Larry Stocking, Hillcrest’s athletic director, single-handedly spearheaded the effort to build Westmark Stadium.
“This has been a little over a four-year journey for me,” he said.
Few schools have the necessary $3 million sitting around for the stadium’s construction, and Hillcrest was no different. Instead, Stocking courted private donors and corporate sponsors. Some labor and materials were donated, and naming rights for various parts of the field covered the rest.
“And this location was key for us to be able to even do this stadium,” Stocking explained, gesturing to Ammon’s main street beyond the fence. “The amount of traffic that goes by on Sunnyside Road here was very appealing to all of our donors and sponsors.”
The 4,000-seat stadium has been designed with that communal experience in mind.
“It’ll actually have a big, red ‘H’ in the middle that you’ll be able to see from the distance,” Stocking said while pointing to the main bleachers.
“This area right here is for concession trucks,” he said by the end zone closest to the school. “So we have agreements with 12 food trucks and concessions people that will come in and park.”
“And the cool thing about this, what I’m excited about, is the fans can get their food, and they can just watch the game right here from the fence,” he continued. “So this will be a nice standing room area for them as well.”
The stadium is also equipped with a state-of-the-art LED floodlight system which can uplight an airborne football and display 600 different light combinations. But the field, of course, remains the focal point.
“This actually has a concussion pad underneath that will pass a six-foot concussion test, so it’s one of the safest fields that you could have,” Stocking explained.
“Similar to places like University of Montana and LSU, we have about the same distance from the fans to the field,” he continued, gesturing to the bleachers. “So the fan experience is gonna be great.”
