By Bruce Karnick

Tuesday, October 20th gave Hastings eight plus inches of snow, it also gave South Saint Paul nearly as much. The Raiders were scheduled to travel to South Saint Paul on Friday, October 23rd to take on the Packers, but mother nature seemed to have other plans in mind. The wet and cold weather all week after the snow fall is not a good combination for grass fields. In fact, many local schools were scrambling to find usable fields for a variety of sports. Park and White Bear Lake boys’ soccer played on a freshly plowed turf field Wednesday night in White Bear Lake. Hastings girls’ soccer versus Rosemount was moved into the Rosemount dome on Wednesday night. Park Football versus Apple Valley was moved to Cottage Grove since they have a turf field, just to name a few. South Saint Paul is not only a grass field, but the field is in a hole with limited drainage, so there was no way to play at South Saint Paul and not destroy the field. Sound familiar? That means the game needed to be moved to Hastings.

Yes, Hastings is now able to host games when the weather causes issues elsewhere, something we are not used to yet, but a big benefit of the recent upgrades to McNamara Stadium at Todd Field. The lone weather-related problem we have now is, how do you remove snow from the artificial turf without damaging the turf? There is a plow-like attachment that can go on the turf grooming machine, but Hastings opted not to include that when the field upgrades were done. The plow is designed to leave as much of the infill on the field as possible, it’s guaranteed not to snag or tear the turf and it would not void the warranty of the field, but it is expensive.

That is where the volunteers come in. The Hastings School Athletics website had a signup looking for 30 volunteers to fill three different, two hour shoveling shifts starting at noon on Friday.

See Todd Field Page 3

Volunteers clean up Todd Field ahead of Friday’s bonus home game vs South Saint Paul. Photo by Bruce Karnick Todd Field

From Page 1 Each shift is limited to 10 people due to COVID restrictions and the volunteers needed to use plastic bladed shovels to prevent damage to the field. It was a perfect opportunity for the not-socloset Green Bay Packers fans in Hastings to get a little taste of what it is like before each game at Lambeau to be helping clear the field they claim to own. Picking on Green Bay fans aside, it is a wonderful opportunity for community members to show their support and some Raider pride while getting in a few hours of exercise. Let’s just hope they wore their Fitbit or Apple Watch so it counted towards their fitness goals!

The volunteers spent three hours clearing the field. The volunteers that came out were: Chris Jenkins and Phil Vargas from the City of Hastings Parks department. Jason and Brent brought equipment to help move snow from Hidden Greens. Parent volunteers John Teigland, Eric Kennedy, Dan Knoll, Bob Hartman, Shannon McGinnis, Scott Childress, Troy Friermuth. Student Team Manager Kara Darst and Matthew Darst.