The community of Dell Rapids is celebrating its homecoming this week for both of its high schools – Dell Rapids High School and Dell Rapids St. Mary. Instead of playing in Dell Rapids this week, the St. Mary Cardinals football team has moved its homecoming game to McEneaney Field at Bishop O’Gorman High School in Sioux Falls.
Dell Rapids St. Mary Activities Director Casey Michel says Rickeman Field has sand and other debris like hay bales and branches on the field/ its surface.
"Our field got flooded out pretty bad about two-three weeks ago when we got that heavy rain," explained Michel. "A lot of water came on, and that water has since receded, but there’s a lot of sand on the field; dirt, gravel, it’s kind of just a mess."
In some spots he said there are six to twelve inches of sand built up.
Two weeks ago when the Cardinals faced Avon, it worked to move their home game to the Dell Rapids high school field, because the Quarriers were on the road that week in Mitchell. With it being homecoming this week for both schools, and Dell Rapid high school playing at home, it wouldn’t have worked to host two games at the same field.
"I started checking other teams schedules that I knew had field turf. I figured after the rain, there would be a lot of teams that wouldn’t want more games on their field, because they’d get tore up," said Michel. "I knew O’Gorman had field turf and that they happened to be away. I emailed Mr. Kueter and within an hour he said ‘yep, we can make it work."
After this week, St. Mary has two more games left of the regular season. Next week the Cardinals will travel to Coleman-Egan, and the week after that is currently open with an opponent and location yet to be decided.
St. Mary hopes to have Rickeman Field cleaned up in the next two to three weeks to be ready in case they make the playoffs.