Florence football team moves back to legacy field

Posted: Aug 14, 2011 3:38 PM by Andy Koen
Updated: Aug 14, 2011 7:55 PM

There is fresh paint on the stands, and the score board is all polished up. Palmer Field in Florence is ready for another season of high school football. But this field hasn't hosted a high school game in five seasons.

Ordinarily, the team would play at the new Husky Stadium, but the district had to lock up that facility back in April when engineers determined it couldn't safely hold a crowd.

"It has to do with full load bearing, having a lot of folks in there," explains Fremont Re-2 School District Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti.

"We're a big football town and we draw large crowds and so that would pretty much happen every home game."

Voters approved the construction of the new high school and stadium in 2003 at a cost of $18 million. The district is now suing the builder to get the stadium and high school school fixed.

Until then, football games, track meets, even graduations will all have be relocated. Vendetti hopes those fixes can come sooner rather than later.

"The suit has been filed, but up until the time that we would actually go to court there's always hope for a resolution."

However, it may work out in the teams favor that they will be playing in Palmer Field again. The last full season they played here they won a state championship.

The Huskies host the Olathe Pirates in their first home game of the season on September 9.