CJ to call Roger Glass Stadium its own


ROGER GLASS STADIUM

Where: Chaminade Julienne High School campus.

What: 2,500-seat football and soccer stadium.

Notable: Field Turf, lights.

Opens: Fall 2016.

Just a freshman, Brendan Kadel is only weeks into his Chaminade Julienne High School football career. But that’s not too early to lump the promising quarterback and his teammates into Eagles program history.

“It means so much to me,” gushed Kadel following Wednesday night’s revealing of the soon-to-be Roger Glass Stadium during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in a packed CJ gymnasium. “Everybody, my grandpa, they all said it was never going to happen. It’s a blessing for such a thing and I’m really excited that I get to play on it.”

Thanks to an unprecedented $20 million fund-raising drive and the deep pockets of 1960 alum Roger Glass, CJ will have a stadium to call its own.

Ground will be broken today for the field, which will be located at an open area next to the indoor training facility on the expanding campus at the corner of Franklin and Ludlow streets in downtown Dayton.

Equipped with Field Turf, the stadium will have lights and is expected to hold about 2,500 spectators. Parking will be at existing open areas around the campus and side streets.

The Eagles varsity football team has been ticketed to open the 2016 season at home in the new stadium. Its opponent? Mighty Marion Local, currently a four-time small school state champion.

“It’s going to be a big day for us,” assured CJ varsity football coach Marcus Colvin amid well-wishers, teammates and parents. “We’ll see what we’re made of because they’re (darn) good, but we’ll be ready for them.”

Soccer also will be played on the new stadium.

Most of CJ’s teams currently play home games off campus. The football teams play at Wayne High School and before that rented the old West Carrollton Middle School football stadium. The baseball team plays at Howell Field in Dayton. The girls soccer teams play at Wright State University and practice at Dog Leg Fields in Vandalia.

“It was so shocking, I almost cried,” admitted junior girls soccer player Logan Dix. “It’s going to be really nice to have it so close and have it turf, too. It’s going to be amazing.”

A member of the four-team Greater Catholic League North Division, CJ will join Fenwick and Carroll in having a true home-field advantage. Only Alter remains without a stadium. The Knights do have two turf fields for football practice and varsity soccer matches.

Glass said it was his goal to kick-start an effort to keep the Eagles sports teams on campus. That was something he didn’t get to do in high school band: the football team practiced across the Great Miami River and the band practiced in the Sears parking lot after it closed.

“It means the world to CJ,” said Glass, son of Marion’s Piazza founder Marion Glass and Marion’s Piazza president. “This is for the students. This is stuff that I never had in high school. I want them to have the best because this is a great school.”

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