Donation gives Merced High hope for a football stadium

Merced High School’s hopes for an on-campus football stadium potentially got a big push by a large donation from Hostetler Ranches owner Greg Hostetler.

Hostetler donated 8.33 acres of land near Merced College to the Merced High Quarterback Club. The plan is to sell the land and put the money toward building the football stadium at Merced High. The land is listed for sale at $2.1 million.

“This is huge,” said Merced principal John Olson. “I was thrilled when I heard about it. What this allows us to do is start our process in terms of scoping out step one. As we hopefully get value for this land, it helps put things in motion.”

Olson estimates a new stadium that would seat 3,000 to 4,000 fans with synthetic turf would cost about $3 million. Merced has shared Veterans Stadium at Golden Valley, which cost $6 million, since it opened in 2011.

“It’s been a dream of ours to make this happen here,” Bears head coach Rob Scheidt said. “We want a facility that won’t just be used for football. We want to get as much use out of the facility as we can. This donation makes the reality so much closer.”

Hostetler was on campus on Thursday and got a firsthand look at Merced’s facilities. This isn’t the first donation he has made to Merced High.

In 2005 he and his late wife, Cathie, donated $25,000 to pay for a new scoreboard for the Merced baseball field. In 2004, the Hostetlers also donated $500,000 to UC Merced to help with the construction of the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center. The basketball court at UC Merced is named Greg and Cathie Hostetler Court.

“It was a big desire before (Cathie’s) passing to do things on a continual basis for the community,” Hostetler said. “She was big about Christmas and holidays and helping people out. She wanted me to continue that in Merced and Los Banos both.”

Hostetler didn’t remember who approached him about donating the land to the high school, but he thought it was a good idea.

“It was kind of the power of suggestion,” he said. “We donated that scoreboard back in the day when my wife was around and she liked that. I’m not an apartment builder. I’m primarily a farmer, and we build homes. We’re back in the homebuilding business again. I’m not going to build on that land and you can’t farm on it. So it made sense to give it to the school. It’s a good idea, and it’s the right thing to do, too.”

The high school now has to sell it and they’re getting help in that department from Coldwell Banker Gonella Realty, which is donating its services.

“What happens now is the property is placed on the market, and we’ll do our best to market the property and sell it,” said Loren Gonella. “We want to get the money to the Quarterback Club so they can start the construction of the stadium.”

The plan is to build the stadium where the freshmen field is located. The school has hosted two games on campus in recent years, including this past September against Enochs of Modesto, by assembling a makeshift stadium by collecting bleachers from all around campus.

Both games were well-received by fans.

“We’ve looked at a lot of stadiums at public and private schools,” Olson said. “We think we can build something special in that back corner of the school.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2015 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Donation gives Merced High hope for a football stadium."