Hillcrest High looking to complete Westmark Stadium with more private funding

AMMON — In just two years, Hillcrest High School’s Westmark Stadium has seen four district championships — two apiece for the football and girls’ soccer teams — and six football state tournament game victories.

Now, Hillcrest and its booster club, the Knights of the Roundtable, are looking toward the stadium’s biggest win yet: a completed facility, built using more private funding.

The school’s principal, Tyler Mills, spoke about the current stadium, with its unique player entrance that brings the players to the field from the center of the bleachers, the spectator seating situated closer to the field than most, and the food truck area. The school, students, athletes and spectators love it, he said.

“We’ve started to create a kind of unique experience,” Mills told EastIdahoSports.com. “It’s a very intimate environment — it’s close, it’s loud, I think we’ve got a pretty cool, unique experience, and this is the next step of that and adding to that experience for our players and our fans.”

Westmark Stadium was designed to be completed in three phases. Phase one, which was completed before the 2024-25 school year, included the playing field, bleachers and scoreboard. Phase two will bring the development of a bus loop and locker rooms. Phase 3 would see the addition of an entryway and veterans’ memorial.

Of what remains to be developed, the top of Mills’ list is the bus loop and locker room facility, which is as much about safety as it is function.

At the current facility, both home and visiting teams use locker rooms on the main school campus. That means the players and coaches must cross the parking lot to get to and from the field. At night, that can create an issue.

According to Mills, one visiting athlete last season was nearly struck by a car in the lot.

“It’s not just a ‘Hey, we want this for the players,’ it’s a safety thing,” Mills said. “It’s something that — the sooner we can do it, the better.”

Adding the bus loop and locker rooms would allow players to be dropped off and picked up directly in front of the stadium, and never have to leave it. As an added bonus, the bus loop would also allow the school to use more of the lot for parking.

The locker rooms have already been designed, and both Mills and Angie Daw, a Hillcrest Legion Club member and one of the Knights of the Roundtable, are excited about them.

“The locker rooms are really designed for all of the teams that use the stadium,” Mills said. “It’s not just our football stadium, it’s where our soccer teams play, club lacrosse uses it in the spring. … Everyone has a space, and that’s what we really wanted to ensure was that everyone using the stadium has a space in the locker rooms.”

The hub-style design will feature a boys’ soccer locker room, a girls’ soccer locker room, a football locker room, a visiting locker room and cheer squad storage space. And at the center, a training facility.

Daw’s daughter, Quincy, is entering her senior year at Hillcrest, and, according to Daw, it has been “a dream come true” for her to play soccer on the new stadium field. But the Daws have accepted that the eldest child will be at the school when the locker rooms open.

Now, the dream has shifted to Daw’s son, who will be a freshman during the 2027-28 school year, being among the first student-athletes to use the locker space.

The current timetable for phase two completion, according to Mills, is by the 2028-29 school year.

As for phase three, that remains on the back burner. But that would bring a ticket booth, an entryway and a veterans’ memorial to the stadium.

According to Mills, the city of Ammon does not have a veterans’ memorial, and he believes this facility would well serve that need.

Altogether, Mills believes the completion would cost between $1 million and $1.3 million. And due to the generosity of the primary sponsor for phase one, Westmark Credit Union, which provided $1.5 million, Hillcrest is able to offer naming rights to donors.

The locker rooms could carry their own name, as could the bus loop and entryway, similar to the scoreboard and visiting section.

And money isn’t the only way local companies can help.

“If there’s someone who owns a paving company and they would like to put in a bus loop for us in trade and put their name on there, we are open to stuff like that, too,” Daw said.

Hillcrest is open to large corporate donors or small, grass-roots-style fundraising. They have set up a Venmo account — here — for those willing to help with smaller donations.

“There are definitely opportunities for businesses to be involved and use that tax write-off benefit,” Daw said. “Obviously, there are big things, like corporate sponsorships … or we also just have a Venmo if people are like, ‘I just want to give 50 bucks,’ we have an option for that.”

One common misconception both Daw and Mills wanted to dispel about the Westmark Stadium development is that it was launched using public funding. The vast majority of the project to date has been funded by private donors, and Hillcrest plans to finish it the same way.

“(Public money) is not an option right now,” Mills said.

He added that he is thankful for the citizens of Ammon voting in support of a school district levy to cover the costs of school improvement and pay increases for educators and paraprofessionals. He does not want the Westmark Stadium development to be another burden on taxpayers.

Hillcrest, Mills said, will have signage up at Westmark Stadium throughout the fall sports seasons, showing fundraising progress, and hopes to celebrate reaching the goal by the end of the next school year.

Anyone interested in donating money or labor is asked to call Principal Mills at Hillcrest High School at (208) 525-4429.