There’s no denying and there’s no second guessing- you’re here.
The walls of the gym echo its legacy, the principal, school board members and the city’s mayor speak about it with pride and a new $12 million renovation project emanates the tradition of Colton High School (CHS).
On January 17, 2019, CHS held a ribbon cutting ceremony and celebrated the grand opening of their newly revived football stadium.
Students, alumni and visitors entering CHS's Memorial Stadium were met by a redesigned gateway that proudly proclaims “Home of the Yellowjackets.” Other renovations include aluminum visitor bleachers, field lighting, wheelchair accessible entrances and a modernized training and weight room.
The ribbon cutting ceremony reflected Colton pride throughout the night.
“I want you to understand the sweat and the work that was put into this stadium,” CHS Principal Joda Murphy said.
“What made it special is that the company that came over to build our stadium, to modernize it, they were again alumni from Colton High School. Their hands were in the bricks, in the cement, in all of the work that was being done… it’s important to honor that our alumni, our graduates would have pride in our school and came back to modernize our stadium.”
Just inside the stadium’s gateway is a section of the walkway designated to commemorative bricks inscribed with the names of current students, alumni and family’s with multiple generation alumni members, cementing themselves in the high school’s history.
Murphy hopes the newly renovated stadium always keeps alumni and family coming back to support its students.
Colton’s recently-elected mayor, Frank Navarro, also attended the event and addressed his commitment to the Superintendent of Colton Joint Unified School District Jerry Almendarez.
“Can you feel it? This is Colton excitement,” Navarro began. “The City of Colton is ready and willing and able to work hand in hand with [the Superintendent’s office] to make Colton Unified School district [and] the City of Colton a place to live, play and have fun.”
Members of the Board of Education Frank Ibarra and Dan Flores also gave a few words before the ribbon cutting, both thanking all who helped in the efforts of the project and predicted a bright and prosperous future for the Yellowjackets.
“This beautiful stadium and the renovation are fantastic, but it’s not quite complete,” Flores said.
“There’s something missing that we will have over time… we’ve got to fill the stands, we got to come to the games, to the activities and events- We’ve got to show. That’s the keystone that goes on top of this beautiful stadium… Let’s show up and be that keystone that’s out in the stadium and show the rest of the Inland Empire what it means to have Colton pride.”