High School Baseball Fields in Iowa I've Been To

So a while back I made a post about high school football fields in Iowa I've been to. That is linked HERE. 60 of them for football/track.

As for baseball, to the best of my recollection, I've been to 66, if I include 3 fields to watch high school games that normally have other tenants (Principal Park, Bucks Field in Waterloo, and Grandview College)

First let's start with the fields I recall playing on. Most of these school are consolidated, but I presume the fields are still there. Sanborn, Hartley, Primghar, Milford, Paullina, Sutherland, Alta, Aurelia from the Sioux Valley Conference. Not as many games played back then as now, so the non-con list isn't that big. Cherokee, Western Christian-Hull, Little Rock, George, Melvin, Storm Lake St. Mary, Everly, Ocheyedan, Arnolds Park, Sibley.

Next let's go with HS fields I have umpired on. Roland-Story, South Hamilton, Blairsburg NE Hamilton, South Hardin, Ames, Boone, Ogden, North Polk, Glidden-Ralston, Collins-CMB, Zearing Colo-Nesco, Dayton-SE Webster Grand, Gilbert, Des Moines Christian.

Then there are a bunch where I've watched Jerald play, either in school ball, or spring ball. Nevada, State Center-West Marshall, Marshalltown, Gilman-East Marshall, Waterloo Bucks, Ft Dodge Dodger Stadium, Ft Dodge St Edmond-Harlan Rogers Park, Jefferson Greene County, Prairie City-PCM, Carroll Stadium, Rippey East Greene, DM Roosevelt, DM East, DM Hoover, Johnston, Saydel, Ankeny, SE Polk, Newton, Waukee, Woodward-Granger, Bondurant-Farrar, Principal Park, Belmond-Klemme, Grandview, Van Meter, Mason City Newman, Martinsdale-St Marys.

Then I recall a few more, where I just went to watch for one reason or another, that didn't involve me, or Jerald. Floyd Valley in Alton, Granville Spalding, Sioux Center, Manson NW Webster, Slater-Ballard, Lawton-Bronson.

I don't know if I have a favorite. Probably Carroll Stadium, it just has a cool old time vibe to it. Not to be a homer, but I really like Norsemen Field. Coach Hill takes such nice care of it, and the grass baselines between home and 1st, and home and 3rd are a bit of an oddity.

My HS home field had its own oddity. Light poles in the field of play in right and center fields. They were there for football and in the way for baseball. I seem to recall you couldn't catch the ball off the poles, but you could the electric lines.

Martensdale-St Marys has I think an old brick bus barn as a home run "fence". As close to Camden Yards as you can get in Iowa I guess.

Back to my high school days, Ocheyedan didn't have a home run fence. Just a big open field. Run Forest, run! Lawton-Bronson has stadium seats, which is really cool for a small high school. SE Polk has the only all turf field of the bunch. Clean bounces, and clean jerseys.

Ames has a new field now, that I haven't been to. Their old field is kinda cool too. Lotta history there, including Satchel Paige pitching there. I'll leave with a photo of Jerald at bat there, back in 2015. I love the 4 legged light standards (and my cell tower in the background).

School Football fields/tracks I've been to in Iowa

I just went to a track meet in Clarion to see my niece run. Never been there before. Interesting set up for the fans, as the entire home bleachers had a wooden grandstand. I've seen a few wooden grandstands at high schools for baseball, but never for football. So I got to thinking, how many Iowa High or Junior High School football fields have I been to, to have never seen that.

I started going through them in my mind, and it is a big list, so I decided to put them down on the computer. So here is my list. This is actually attending a football game, or a track meet. (with my travels for work, I have driven by many more, but not gonna count those). The list will include schools that are now departed due to closings and mergers. So this will be high schools, and possibly junior high schools.

(JH) will indicate a Junior High game or field. (Ref) will be fields I have refereed on (which adds to the total)

So let's start with my younger days, I was at every field in the Sioux Valley Conference. Sanborn, Milford, Hartley, Primghar, Paullina, Sutherland, Alta, and Aurelia. I'll throw in a bonus of Calumet (JH) of Sutherland. The only "bowl" I've been to. The field was not flat, it actually had a big dip in the middle.

Here are the remainder from my high school days in NW Iowa: Boyden-Hull (Hull), M-OC (Orange City), Sibley, George, Everly, Estherville.

So when I moved back to Iowa in 1997, I got to see some new ones. Then I started writing for the Story City Herald, and calling games on Norsemen Network/The Rocket, following the Norsemen around. I also covered girls track for awhile for The Herald, so that added some tracks. I also started reffing, so that has added some others. By 1997, there was no longer conference football, but districts, and that changed every two years. So that was a chance to add to my list. So here goes:

Roland-Story (Story City)(Ref), Roland-Story (Roland)(JH), Colo-Nesco (Zearing)(JH)(Ref), Colo-Nesco(Colo)(Ref), West Marshall (State Center), East Marshall(LeGrand), South Tama(Tama), Union(LaPorte City), BCLUW(Conrad), Dike-New Hartford, Aplington-Parkersburg, South Hardin (Eldora), Iowa Falls-Alden, South Hamilton(Ref), Webster City, Eagle Grove, Clarion-Goldfield, Ft Dodge St. Ed (Dodger Stadium), Prairie Valley (Gowrie), SE Webster Grand (Ref), Southern Cal (Lake City), Carroll Kuemper(Carroll Stadium), Greene County(Jefferson), East Greene(Rippey), Ogden(Ref), Boone(Ref), Ames, Ames(JH)(Ref), Ballard(Huxley), Bondurant-Farrar, Van Meter, Prairie City-Monroe, CMB-Baxter, CMB-Maxwell, North Polk(Old and New fields),Nevada(Ref), Gilbert (Old and New Fields) (Ref at both), Hampton-Dumont, Central Springs (Manly), Osage, North Fayette Valley (West Union), Hudson, Grundy Center.

So if I counted right, that is 60 different school facilities I've been witness to an event. Most are football, some are track only. And if I counted right, I've reffed at 11 different fields.

This has intrigued me for baseball now. I'm guessing that will be a higher number. But that will be for another day.

I do want to throw in a quick review. My favorite place is Eldora, at least from the visitor's side. Great view over a valley to the west. Really pretty in the fall. Twins: My high school field in Sanborn, and CMB-Maxwell. No track, so cars pull up right next to the field. Great way for fans to get really close to the action. Good looking places I haven't seen a game: Really like the looks of Emmetsburg's facilities as I drive by. And Colfax-Mingo looks kinda cool built into the side of a hill. Quirks: Nevada has a steep hill in the back endzone. as they try to cram it inside of a track. Sanborn and Primghar had baseball infields on the field, Primghar at the 50, and Sanborn in one endzone. Worst: North Polk's old field was the worst. Just beat to death, and something like a 3rd world field. Their upgrade to the new turf may have been the biggest upgrade in the history of Iowa high school sports.

Track quirks: Van Meter and Ogden, just like Drake, have blue ovals. Boone's track is more round, so it has huge sidelines for football, but the track curves are really close to the endzones.