Stadium construction nearing start at CDS

Carrollwood Day School has received permission to begin clearing land, and construction on an on-campus football stadium is expected to start later this spring, Patriots coach Lane McLaughlin said Monday. The stadium, which has yet to be named, should be completed in August, just in time for the school's inaugural season of 11-man football (it played six-man football last fall).

"Everybody is pretty excited," McLaughlin said.

The stadium will seat approximately 1,000 fans and rest next to a lake that border's CDS property. All of its stands will be on one side of the field, which is being done to limit the noise. The Patriots played games on campus last year, but the field only had bleachers.

-- KEITH NIEBUHR