Months ago, on a cold and breezy early April day in Fort Pierre, Mammoth Construction along with a few Stanley County school board members put shovels in the middle of Ole Williamson Field breaking ground on their brand new football/track & field complex. There was excitement and curiosity around how it would look, what all it would include, but mainly when it would be done. Fast forward to today, August 7th, and the Buffaloes were able to hold their first ever practice on the nearly completed and extremely beautiful new turf field. The sounds of whistles drowned out the ongoing construction noise as Mammoth was more than happy to work around the first practice of the season.
In helmets and practice jerseys, the Buffaloes ran through offensive and defensive drills, worked on technique and added a little conditioning at the end. There was that same sense of excitement today that was held back on April 4th when the project began, though this time it was the players who felt the butterflies of getting to run a true practice on their new digs. Buffaloes head coach, Max Foth, could hardly hold back a smile as he ran his drills and directed his team throughout the practice. We asked coach about the new field, and the start of the season coming right around the corner:
As the summer sun started to work it’s way over top of the new turf, the heat began to intensify, but it wouldn’t phase senior leader Paxton Deal who is excited not only to be back out on the practice field with his teammates, but also to be practicing on their new field:
Case Kolda was also happy to be back out there, not only with his teammates but also with his coaching staff who he says has been a great group of leaders for he and his team. Kolda was also smiling ear to ear when discussing the prospect of the Fort Pierre community being able to watch their Buffaloes play at the new complex in late August:
Senior Landon Bame was almost in awe of the opportunity to play on the new field, even if it is just a practice. He too shared the sentiment that it might be the most beautiful field in South Dakota:
As practice (and conditioning) concluded, Foth sat with his team on the 10-yard line and gave some words of wisdom about the importance of taking care of their bodies off the field. Stanley County was riddled with injuries throughout 2024, putting them in an extremely tough spot for a majority of the season trying to fill in where some of their star players went down. With that, he also expressed the importance of getting some new faces out for the 2025 season. Foth implored to his team how thrilled he would be if they could rally a few more players that were on the fence about playing in 2025 to come out to practice in hopes of adding some more depth to the roster.
Construction still continues as they put the final touches on the track & field portions of the project, with the beams for the bleachers being installed simultaneously. The Buffaloes will start their season on the road against Hill City on August 22nd before coming back to Fort Pierre on August 29th for their first home game at the complex. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM CT and we will have that game, along with all Stanley County football games on KGFX.
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