Where will St. Mary play football this season? – Argus Leader

Tom Savage, For the Dell Rapids Tribune Published 1:37 p.m. CT June 5, 2020 | Updated 1:47 p.m. CT June 5, 2020

Officials at St. Mary are hoping to turn the current practice facility on Garfield Avenue into its permanent football field in the future.(Photo: Tom Savage)

The St. Mary Cardinals havent played a home game at Rickeman Field since Aug. 30, 2019. After opening with back-to-back home games last season, the Cardinals hit the road for two straight.

Then the Big Sioux River broke through its banks, flooding Rickeman and displacing the Cardinals for the balance of the season. They played one home game in September against Avon at Dell Rapids public, and homecoming in October was against Centerville and played at Sioux Falls OGorman. St. Mary played its two home playoff games at Chester because of the damage to Rickeman.

Although 2020 has so far been a headache on sports schedules, Dell Rapids at least caught a break when the Big Sioux stayed inside its banks this spring and the predicted second round of flooding never transpired. But Rickeman was heavily damaged in last falls flooding and city officials didnt make repairs to the playing surface under the assumption that more flooding would occur in the spring.

With those waters never creeping onto the field, officials began repairs earlier this spring and Dell Rapids PBR played its first baseball game of the season at Rickeman on May 31 with all repairs completed.

Dell Rapids St. Mary prepares for the game against Colman-Egan on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (Photo: Abigail Dollins / Argus Leader)

There is now hope that St. Mary will be able to use the field this fall after seeding on the outfield, which doubles as St. Marys 80x40 football field in the fall, had come in nicely by PBRs opener.

The field was covered in sand following the fall flooding, and there was some doubt if baseball or football could be played on the surface in 2020. But city administrator Justin Weiland said he thinks the field will be fine for the Cardinals to compete this fall. St. Marys home opener isnt until Sept. 4 when they host De Smet.

But the long-term solution to St. Marys situation could be their 5.5-acre practice field east of Rickeman and across Garfield Avenue. That area is where the Cardinals practice during the week, and its also home to St. Marys portable bleachers and goal posts, which are moved over to Rickeman each August and taken back to the practice field each October.

Athletic director Casey Michel said the school is in preliminary stages of turning the practice field into the Cardinals permanent home. Its a financial hurdle that the school has to overcome in order to make that a reality, and theyve got a big chunk to go to make it so.

Michel said theyve raised approximately $6,000 towards the project that could easily creep into six figures when completed. Between lights, wiring, a crows nest for timing and scoring, and potentially crowning the field to help with drainage, Michel admitted the need for fundraising in order to make it all work.

But thats our goal, to make that area our permanent field, he said. If we do it right, it would probably be pushing six figures pretty quick, which we just dont have.

Michel said flooding about 10 years ago forced the Cardinals to play their homecoming game at Garretson. That situation started the conversations about developing the practice field, but those talks cooled before resurfacing again last year after the flood.

A bid process was started and Michel said they have received quotes for the project.

The practice field is further away from the river (than Rickeman) and last year we may have lost a couple of home games, but by playoff time, we could have been able to play on it, Michel said. We would still run the risk of having to move a home game, but typically on that field, when the water recedes, its in good enough shape that you could play on it after a couple of weeks.

Although the six-figure number is a bit daunting, Michel said the school could just chip away at the goal slowly to get the field playable sooner than later.

If we could just get lights, we could make everything else work because we really dont want to play afternoon games, he said. So if we just got the money to do the lights, maybe we dont have a crows nest for a couple of years. We can figure that out and maybe just put them on the top of the bleachers.

For this fall, all indications are that the Cardinals will be back at Rickeman. Weiland said St. Mary will have to supply proper liability insurance paperwork and a mitigation plan due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its the same paperwork the city is requiring baseball andsoftball teams using city facilities this summer.

We dont have a final answer, but I dont anticipate there being a problem,Weiland said of St. Mary playing football games at Rickeman this fall. Hopefully we dont see a second wave of this thing (COVID-19). Like everything, its really hard to plan that far out on anything right now.

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Where will St. Mary play football this season? - Argus Leader