New sports complex hosts . rst ball game
football fi eld Friday afternoon with a 50-8 victory over Twin River.
But the bigger victory stretched well beyond the scoreboard.
For the Tilden and Meadow Grove communities, the Falcons' fi rst game on the new fi eld marked the culmination of decades of decisions, investment and community support — and the beginning of something generations of Elkhorn Valley athletes never had.
“I could hardly sleep last night.
I was so excited to play on the new fi eld. I couldn't wait," senior Logan Black said.
A state qualifi er in hurdles, the new facility means Black can practice his best spring events without traveling to other communities.
"I can't wait," he said. "This is coming from a dude who has practiced hurdles on the dirt and sand. I feel like now I'll actually have a place where I can practice and get better." A football fi eld of their own. A track of their own. And, fi nally, a place where Falcon athletes can practice and compete together at home.
The new facility is the latest step in a progression that began decades ago as Elkhorn Valley continually looked toward what students need next.
One of the fi rst major steps came in the 1980s, when the district decided to move its volleyball and basketball programs from the Tilden City Auditorium to a new gymnasium on the school grounds. The gym opened in 1987.
Nearly three decades later, the communities again invested in the district's future, passing a $17.2 million bond issue in 2016 for construction of a new middle and high school building that included a new gymnasium.
But football and track and fi eld remained without the same kind of home.
Talk circulated for years about the possibility of building a new sports complex for the programs.
Lifelong Tilden resident Rich Rethwisch remembers when the football and baseball teams shared the same facility, something he said had happened “for as long as I can remember."
It was Rethwisch who pushed in 1987 to have the baseball fi eld named Richie Ashburn Field in honor of Tilden native and Baseball Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn.
Track athletes had their own history of making do. Rethwisch recalled the old dirt track used in Meadow Grove before the district created a practice football field and gravel track in Tilden. Athletes had a less-than-flattering nickname for that surface: “kitty litter.”
For years, the track team also traveled to Neligh-Oakdale and Battle Creek for some practices just to have the opportunity to work out on an all-weather surface.
Those trips are no longer necessary.
The new complex gives Elkhorn Valley its own football and track and field facility, bringing athletes who once had to split up for practices together on one campus.
For Falcon alum Rusty Rautenberg, who returned to Tilden and now calls the community home, seeing that become reality carries meaning beyond athletics.
“It’s just a proud moment for our communities. It’s a really great facility,” Rautenberg said. “It gives you a lot of pride in the fact that we were able to pull this off and make it a reality.”
As a coach, though, Rautenberg admits his attention is already turning toward spring. While Friday provided the first opportunity to showcase the football field, he has waited years to see what an all-weather track can do for the program.
“For me, it’s even more exciting. The football field is great, but the track is what I’m even more excited about, mainly because we’ve never had a good practice facility,” he said. “It will be fun to go to practice and watch a whole bunch of our kids working in one place at one time. It will be really fun to see how this benefits the kids.”
Veteran track coach Jeff Meyer has spent years working around those limitations. Instead of athletes scattering to different locations for workouts, he can now build practices around one facility.
“We really have a great facility. It will be helpful to us for getting in some good workouts,” Meyer said. “We’ll be able to avoid some of the distractions of the past with having people split up all over the place. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Friday, however, belonged to football.
For seniors Black and Tyler Suckstorf, there is only one season to experience something previous classes spent years hoping would become reality. Suckstorf said that made the community surrounding the field for the first game even more meaningful.
“It’s awesome. It took so much community support to get behind this,” Suckstorf said. “It is a really cool thing to get to experience. It was great to see everyone here that were also able to experience it.”
For freshman Maverick Afrank, the perspective is different.
He walked onto the same field Friday, but instead of seeing one final season ahead of him, he saw four years — and all the games, practices and moments that will come with them.
“I’m super excited for the next four years and all of the memories I’m going to make on this field,” Afrank said. “It’s nice to have something like this for my entire high school career.”
