Photo Provided Donors for the lighting project pose for a picture outside of the pavilion Wednesday. From left, are: Danny Taylor (Capstone Holding Company), Rick Ferrell (SCASA), David Hahn (SCASA), Mike Britt (Capstone), Lova Ebbert, Emily Shortall (Goodman Properties), Melinda Thompson (SCASA), John Dutton (Capstone) and Randy Greenwood (Unified Bank)

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Let there be light!

A more than two-year project at the Capstone Soccer Complex culminated last Thursday when committee members and sponsors held an official ‘light-up night’ and flipped the switch to light up the four fields that grace the property that sits on Airport Road.

“It’s like a dream come true,” Capstone Soccer Complex Committee member David Hahn said. “To see this come to fruition is exciting. To really make it happen and see it happen, we just kept hoping and here we are. It’s just an exciting night.”

The entire project cost upwards of $190,000 and was funded entirely through private money and donations.

“We funded probably 25-30 thousand from our organization and then the rest was donated, so we’re grateful for everyone’s generosity,” Hahn said. “It’s sort of like when we started the project initially, you have to dream, be positive and then get some other people, who are workers, to dream along with you.”

A committee including Rick Ferrell, Melinda Thompson, chairperson Emily Shortall, Chuck George, Kirk Porterfield and Brian Kralovic formed and dug right into the project.

“The project took some time, but once the community got behind it, they really got behind it,” Shortall said. “It seemed like everyone we talked to either had a child, grandchild, niece or nephew who played (at Capstone) at some point in their life.”

Hahn, who had a field re-named in his honor during Thursday’s ceremony, is always amazed at how well and quickly the community has responded to help with various projects at the facility.

“Projects like this continue to demonstrate that when there are positive things, especially for children, happening, the community has the capability of putting together some fantastic things,” Hahn said. “But, it takes some strong leadership and a lot of really good volunteers. We’ve been blessed to have that (at Capstone Soccer Complex).

Though the formal ceremony wasn’t held until Thursday, the facility actually lit up a few days prior for a few matches and practices. Hahn pulled into the facility and had to “pinch” himself when he saw soccer being played post sunset.

“There is no facility like this at the recreational or club level anywhere around us,” Hahn said. “You’d have to go to Pittsburgh or Columbus to find something similar.

The Capstone Soccer Complex opened in 2004 and seemingly each season more and more improvements have been made at the fields, which have gone a long way in helping to make the complex one of the finest youth soccer complexes in the tri-state area.

“This has really become one of the better facilities in the region,” Hahn said. “There’s hardly been a year go by where we’d not had some type of project and we have some more planned for the future.”

With the facility improving and the sport of soccer growing in popularity, the St. Clairsville Area Youth Soccer Association has seen continual growth in its participation numbers. When the Capstone Complex opened, Hahn indicated fewer than 200 kids were involved, but it’s grown steadily.

“We have kids ages three to 15 playing from all over the Ohio Valley,” Hahn said. “Actually, 40% of the kids playing here are from outside of St. Clairsville. We had a goal for 300 when we opened and we’re at 350 this season and now my hope is 400, which I can see happening easily.”

And a big part of that growth is going to be owed to the committee that oversaw the light project. With lights, game schedules can go later in the evening, allowing more teams to play. Finding times to play make-up games due to weather cancellations will become easier and as committee co-chair Emily Shortall pointed out, “the kids love playing under the lights because they think they’re superstars.”