LA CENTER — Zac McRobert heard about the project all the time growing up in La Center.
By the time he got to high school, he was told, there would be a new stadium, a new football field, on campus at La Center High School.
Letdown after letdown was beginning to take its toll, though.
“Two years ago, I thought it was never going to happen,” McRobert said after a levy came up a few votes short of passage.
The project was in critical condition but still had a heartbeat.
The community — old, young, athletes, non-athletes, parents, grandparents, friends outside of La Center — not only saved the project, but actually are building the project.
Now, McRobert is preparing for his senior year of football for the Wildcats, preparing to play on a new field, in front of fans in a new set of bleachers, under new lights, and at the high school.
Oh, and McRobert and other football players are just some of the hundreds of people who have volunteered and/or donated funds to the project that would not die.
“The third-graders who were thinking it was never going to happen will get to play up here,” McRobert said, recalling his days in elementary school, just dreaming of playing a true home game.
La Center football, which has had 12 winning seasons since 1999 and is an annual presence in the playoffs, has played its home games at the district’s middle school field, with its small bleacher section and dim lighting.
But if all goes to plan, the Wildcats will play its home opener in 2014 on Sept. 12 against Woodland at La Center High School.
“I will miss (Woodland coach) Mark Greenleaf complain about the lighting,” La Center coach John Lambert joked.
Lambert is proud of all who have rallied behind the project. As a coach trying to mentor teenagers into young men, he has a special place in his heart for his players who have put in the muscle work this summer.
“I think it will be neat for them to be on the field and know they had a part of putting it together,” Lambert said. “To have ownership is something that will stay with them a long, long time.”
This is not just a football field, though. It will be used for soccer. Project organizers hope to put in a new track in the coming years. A roof also is in the long-term plans. It could become a place the community meets for any number of things.
Which is why it is a true community project.
“It’s a barn-raising,” Lambert said. “That’s really what this is, an old-fashioned barn-raising for an athletic field.”
Walter Hansen, the fundraising coordinator who has been trying to make this happen for more than a decade, said the facility is proof of a “community that would not give up.”
Two years ago, it did appear the end was near. Then Hansen heard from one guy who said he could do this. Then another family of said it could do that. Things snowballed from there.
“We just started putting the guys together,” Hansen said. “Can you do this? Can you do this?”
Just about everybody said yes.
Colf Construction, led by Dick Colf, said the family business would match the community’s donation up to $100,000. As of last week, the community had raised $84,000, Hansen said.
Josh Soske, the project coordinator, and Hansen said organizers got creative with the costs, too.
The lights were $70,000 but $100,000 to install. Volunteers ended up putting up the lights. The 1,200-seat bleachers were $60,000 but $154,000 to install. So organizers put a call out for more volunteers to assemble and install the stadium seating.
The new wall for the stadium was all volunteer labor.
All together, organizers say, including labor, this would have been a $1.8 million project. But the La Center Education Foundation is getting it done with around $400,000, Soske said.
More than 30 companies have donated more than $1,000.
Four banners hang on a nearby fence thanking a number of people, businesses, and other organizations that have pitched in for “The La Center Way” Stadium Project.
Then there are the volunteer workers.
Ian Williams graduated from La Center this year and never played football or soccer. But he was out there last week, and he has answered the call for volunteers just about every time.
“I wanted it to be known it doesn’t require playing a sport to represent your school and give back,” Williams said. “I think it’s important students give back to their school. This is a lasting thing. Decades from now, people will still be enjoying this.”
That is one of the reasons McRobert is working on the project. Sure, he will get to play in the new stadium this fall, but it is more than that to him.
“It makes me really proud to see the bleachers going up,” McRobert said. “I’ll look up there and say, ‘Hey, I helped build this.'”
