Menno-Marion just celebrated their homecoming football game – on a Monday. Last week was homecoming week for the co-op, but flooded roads, fields, and neighborhoods led school officials to call an audible as the week progressed.
This past Thursday, Menno was scheduled to play volleyball against Ethan, but Ethan was experiencing a rise in water levels, and didn’t have school. During the overnight hours, a decision was made by Menno to cancel school on Friday, which in turn, also postponed the homecoming football game that night against Parker.
‘With homecoming, the kids were disappointed. They missed their parade building and floats, but it’s homecoming – it’s every kids high school memories,’ said Menno Athletic Director Jacque Liebl. ‘They like to have the homecoming game, so it kind of put a damper on that.’
The postponement was also hard on the players, who were relishing the opportunity to lace them up for one of the biggest home games of the year.
‘It was one that we had really worked hard for all week, and we figured it was going to be a good one,’ explained junior tight end/linebacker Josh Heckenlaible. ‘So we were all really pumped up for it, prepared, and it was kind of a let down that it didn’t happen.’
On Thursday, increased water levels threatened the historic Our Saviors Lutheran Church, also know locally as the "Stone Church", located just south of Menno. Built in 1948, the church gets its name, because the church was made from rocks gathered in the local fields of the area.
The community of Menno stepped in to save help sandbag the perimeter of Stone Church on Thursday and again on Friday. Included in Friday’s working crew were members of the Menno-Marion football team.
‘Everybody pretty much knows everybody,’ stated junior junior running back/linebacker Austin Kessler. ‘Everyone is willing to help everybody, so if one person needs help, you can bet the rest of the town will be willing to help, and it’s no different with the stone church.’
Because of the efforts of the community, the church was saved.
As for the homecoming game, it was rescheduled for Monday. September 16th.
Freshman quarterback Kadeyn Ulmer said it feels a little odd to have a homecoming football game on Monday of the following week.
‘You’ve got to prepare a little bit differently,” said Ulmer. “You don’t really have a practice before the game to work on anything. We kind of threw it all together [Sunday].”
Monday night’s score didn’t turn out the way Menno-Marion wanted. Parker won the game 12-0. But nothing is more victorious than a community of people coming together because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do.’
The Razorbacks will play again this week, on Friday, when they host Baltic in Marion.
