In the months before she died in May, Linn-Mar sophomore Megan Scott followed the progress of the new football stadium from her bedroom on the school's website camera.

"She loved school from the time she was in kindergarten," says her mother Stacy. "And she was so proud to go to Linn-Mar.

"Megan wanted to go to the first soccer game in the stadium last spring, but she was too sick. And she'd hoped to see the first football game there.

"She was so excited. The stadium was part of her future."

When the Lions christen their new stadium in their football home opener Friday against Kennedy, Megan will be there, at least in spirit.

As a memorial to their 16-year-old daughter who died of a rare form of brain cancer, Stacy and her husband Robert donated an 1,100-pound  concrete Lion and a plaque with Megan's picture on it.

It rests in the northeast corner of the stadium, under the flag poles. The inscription reads, in part, "Fight like a lion ... make your dreams come true."

Her own dreams were dashed far too soon. But, Megan's mother says, "She'll always be a part of a place she loved."

And she lives on in the hearts of her friends and loved ones, in the notes and journals she left behind. In the letters for her little sisters, Makayla, 13, and Madison, 7, to be opened when they turn 16. And in the card she wrote for her mother for Mother's Day. She died the day before it was to be opened.

"Megan was the kind of girl who so loved life and wanted to make everyone else happy," says her mom. "Toward the end, she knew she was dying. But she was always thinking of others."

Her cancer, as is often the case when it strikes the young, came without warning in October of 2009. She was a seemingly healthy, spirited, social, fun-loving 14-year-old.

It started with a twitching in her arm that became more continuous. Doctors discovered a tumor the size of a small rubber ball at the front of her brain, and six days later she underwent surgery to remove it at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics.

Then, two weeks later, tests showed the cancer was the type that usually kills older adults (Sen. Ted Kennedy, for one). Megan was given six weeks of radiation and underwent chemotherapy treatment for more than a year.

"Through all of it," says Stacy, "we lived life as normal as possible."

The family went on a Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii, they went to Disney World. When school started last fall, Megan attended the football games, the dances, all the rest of the regular activities.

Her folks wanted her to live the life of a normal teenager. "And she loved her every minute of it," her mother says.

Although her tests had been clear of cancer, by late last fall Megan began to show mood swings and was weak with low blood counts. On Jan. 11, doctors said the cancer was back and in more places and much more aggressive.

"The doctor could only offer more time," Stacy says. "But not much more time."

Megan couldn't return to school, but she stayed close to all of her many friends. Her mom says watching the stadium being built seemed to give her a sense of hope for the future. She lived to see it finished for the first soccer game last April.

And when the Linn-Mar bell is rung Friday night and the fans are roaring, Megan will be there, too, in the northeast corner of the stadium, under the flag poles, her photo near the concrete lion.