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HERRIMAN -- Herriman High School opens its doors for the first time, and it couldn't come at a better time.
It will relieve a lot of the pressure off of area high schools and has already become a source of pride for the community.
Even before the doors opened for the first time, the brand new football team played its first game last Friday night.
"We're ready to shock the state," lineman Nakita Lealao told told KSL 5 Sportsbeat.
The team lost, but that didn't dampen any enthusiasm. By some estimates there were 3,000, 4,000 or even 6,000 to 7,000 people there.
"They were lined up for blocks to get tickets," said Carmen Freeman, the Jordan Board of Education vice president.
"I was sitting there thinking, here's where we used to have farmland, and now I'm sitting in a football stadium watching a game in Herriman," he said.
Freeman said Herriman High School is already a center point for Herriman.
"It does bring together the people. They want it to be successful because it is a reflection of the community and the values," he explained.
"This is an area where these folks have anticipated this for some time," said David Stoddard, Jordan School District administrator of schools for the Herriman/Riverton area.
Stoddard says the school will open with 1,300 to 1,400 students and is expected to reach the 2,500-student capacity in 10 years based on current growth and the number of elementary and middle school-aged children in the area.
It's taking about a thousand students from what was an overcrowded Riverton High and some from Bingham High as well.
"All of our high schools now with the opening of Herriman High School are under capacity with room to grow. We also would have the ability if need be down the road, if schools fill up, to do slight boundary adjustments to bring those into capacity, "said Stoddard.
The school was paid for by a 2003 bond. The district says a windmill and solar cells are projected to be online in the coming months. The windmill should generate the power for the football stadium lights and contribute to the heating and cooling of the building.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
