South Elgin Stadium opens Thursday

South Elgin High School will officially open its new on-campus stadium Thursday, with the first varsity event being the Storm's boys soccer team taking on Hoffman Estates at 4:30 p.m.

The stadium, which is being constructed completely through private donations, recently was granted its occupancy permit and the final touches for competition are being put in place this week, including the fine-tuning of the state of the art scoreboard, which includes a large video screen.

“The fact this has become reality is phenomenal,” said South Elgin Principal Melanie Meidel. “There was nothing here in June. It's real now. It's not just a 3-D picture on an easel.”

The school will continue with weekend festivities at the new stadium as it hosts Metea Valley in South Elgin's first on-campus football game Saturday. The varsity game is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and the school promises a festive atmosphere throughout the day. Final plans were still being made on Thursday for Saturday's events.