Wilson Stadium, Kirtland’s new artificial turf athletic facility, will be officially unveiled on Aug. 25 with a ribbon-cutting prior to the Kirtland-Lutheran West football game. (Courtesy Kirtland Schools)
All systems are go for the official opening of Kirtland’s new artificial turf stadium on Friday, Aug. 25.
Kirtland schools superintendent Chad VanArnhem confirmed to The News-Herald that the newly named Wilson Stadium opened for business on Aug. 22 with a pair of soccer games. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 5:30 p.m., Aug. 25 leading up to the football team’s home opener against visiting Lutheran West.
“I can’t wait,” VanArnhem said. “There was a lot of hard work that went into the stadium renovation from a lot of different people, so to see our students on the field is a dream come true.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony will include comments from VanArnhem, athletic director Matt Paul, school board president Matt Whittaker, Then Design Architects, Marous Brothers Construction and members of the football (Gino Blasini), boys soccer (Drew Duncan) and girls soccer (Brynn Bradac) teams. Then the Kirtland and Lutheran West football teams will begin their pregame preparations.
While the ribbon-cutting signals the official unveiling of the stadium project, VanArnhem said the first big day of activity came on Aug. 22 when the Kirtland band held its first practice on the field, the football team followed with its practice, followed by a boys soccer game against West Geauga and a girls soccer game against Chardon.
“Everybody got to use it on Tuesday,” Van Arnhem said. “It was a great day.”
A day that VanArnhem admitted he wasn’t sure would come to fruition on the timeline it did. Ground was officially broken on the project after the renewal of a five-year, 1.1-mill permanent improvement levy with an additional 0.95-mill increase for the continued upkeep of school facilities. A science lab was also part of the levy’s construction plans. Students benefited from the use of the state-of-art science lab starting in January 2023.
The Wilson Stadium project “hit a few bumps in the road” along the way, VanArnhem said, but an all-hands-on-deck mentality pulled things through.
“We paused in April for some time and it looked bleak at the time,” he said. “It took a lot of people stepping up.”
Such as John Urbanic, a local civil engineer, helping “get us back on track,” as Van Arnhem put it. He credited the two major companies, Marous Brothers Construction and Then Design Architects, for expediting work quickly and efficiently, Kirtland Local Schools grounds crew members John Lipps and Dave Sluga for tireless efforts and director of technology Greg Cosimi for getting the new video board scoreboard programmed and running.
Additionally, the Kirtland Kiwanis Club gave a $5,000 donation and provided the labor to update the home press box atop the school, including a new floor, insulation and electrical work donated by Mike Kost from BK Electric.
“There are so many success stories of everyone coming together to make this happen,” VanArnhem said. “It’s all going to be showcased with our band, cheerleaders and football team taking the field on Friday. I think it’s going to be one of the largest crowds we’ve ever had. I can’t wait.”