Capo Hires Builder for $1.6-Million High School Stadium

With a builder finally signed on to construct a $1.6-million stadium at San Juan Hills High, the school's will dig its cleats into home turf in the 2012-13 school year.

The Capistrano Unified School District board of trustees on Monday night hired Fontana-based Ohno Construction Company to build the stadium and offered the young school a new completion date of June 2012.

The stadium is one of the last major components of constructing the campus that opened in 2007.

“We are excited that this project will be completed soon,” board President Jack R. Brick said in the statement.

Additionally, the scope of the project was expanded to include renovations to the school’s practice softball field and changes to portions of the shot put area.

“The changes made on this project will ensure that it is completed correctly and on time and on budget," Brick said.

In the meantime, will continue to play home games at Tesoro High School eight miles away in Las Flores. The swim and water polo teams also practice at Tesoro as they await completion of an aquatics center.

Excavation for the pool started in March. At that time, parents and students were assured that by the 2011-12 school year, aquatic sports teams

But that seems less likely to happen now as the district has revised its forecast opening date for the aquatics center, too. Pushing it back by three months to March 2012, "pretty much wrecks the entire swim season," said parent Patrick Duffy.

Duffy, who has two boys that will be on the swim team this year, said the daily commute back and forth between San Juan Hills and Tesoro is difficult and frustrating.

"Many times it [is in the] dark and sometimes in the rain. The students do not get home until very late which does not give them much time to study," he wrote in an e-mail.