FARGO — Construction delays have thrown a wrench in activities scheduling for two area high schools.
With ongoing track renovation projects behind schedule, both Fargo South and Kindred have been forced to move some early-season athletics contests.
Kindred’s home football game against Devils Lake, scheduled for Friday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., will now be played at West Fargo Horace High School instead of the Vikings’ Jerlow Field.
South football’s Friday, Sept. 5 home football game against Minot North, also slated for 7 p.m., will be contested at Fargo North High School rather than the Bruins’ Brant-Quamme Field.
The Bruins boys soccer team is also impacted. Their Sept. 4 home game against West Fargo, set for 7 p.m., will now be played at West Fargo High School with the Packers now tentatively slated to make the return trip to South on Sept. 30.
South
broke ground on a $1.8 million track replacement project
in June. At the time, school officials anticipated some early scheduling shakeups with an expected completion on the project being the first week of September.
“We’re going to have to play some boys soccer games on the road here at the beginning of the year to accommodate it,” South activities director Mike Beaton told The Forum in July. “We’re hoping that by our first home football game, we’ll be playing back on the turf. That’s the hope and the goal. They built in some extra days for weather with the idea that it would be done around that first week in September.”
Beaton said Thursday that the target is now the third week of September for the Bruins to be able to host home contests.
“We are hoping that we will have home games the week of Sept. 22,” Beaton said. “It is dependent on the weather and the availability of the crews to complete the last couple of phases of the project.”
Kindred also began renovations on its track surface in the spring. The Vikings’ next home football contest is slated for Friday, Sept. 19, against Jamestown. Kindred will play two games on the road against Horace (Sept. 5) and Bismarck St. Mary’s (Sept. 12) in between.
Ryan Spitza joined The Forum in December 2021 as a sports reporter. He grew up in Marquette, Mich., a city of 20,000 on the southern shore of Lake Superior. He majored in multimedia journalism and minored in public relations at Northern Michigan University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in May 2019. While attending college, Spitza gained real-world experience covering high school and college athletics for both The Mining Journal and The North Wind.
Spitza can be reached at 701-451-5613 or rspitza@forumcomm.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryspitza.