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Modern Woodmen Park to host high school, college games, too

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By Steve Batterson | Sunday, May 11, 2008 6:33 PM CDT | () comments

Modern Woodmen Park isn’t just a home field for the Quad-Cities River Bandits and the baseball team from St. Ambrose University.

It’s the Quad-Cities’ home field.

The Midwest League diamond in Davenport will host a number of games involving area high school teams this season.

Six teams took the field there last week and eight more teams will get their chance to play there in upcoming weeks.

New ownership of the River Bandits has opened the playing surface at the Midwest League facility to area teams for the first time since the stadium was renovated in 2004.

“It’s a chance to showcase our facility not only for the players who get the chance to play here, but to the fans of those teams,’’ Quad-Cities general manager Kirk Goodman said. “Hopefully, they’ll enjoy the experience and want to come back to more games over the course of the season.”

Teams from Rock Island and Galesburg took the field last Thursday, playing a late-afternoon nonconference game before the River Bandits played their regularly-scheduled game against Kane County.

It was among a group of nine high school games that were originally scheduled to be played at Modern Woodmen Park this season.

Rain and flooding late last month forced the relocation of several games involving teams from Moline, Rock Island Alleman, Aledo and Orion, but the River Bandits accommodated a makeup game earlier last week between United Township and Rockridge.

That game, along with a game on Wednesday between Geneseo and Sherrard, were played on dates when Quad-Cities was on a Midwest League road trip.

Four additional high school games remain on the schedule in upcoming weeks, all either before or after River Bandits games.

“This ballpark belongs to the community and the Quad-Cities area and this is our chance to reach out to the high school programs,” Goodman said. “It’s something we want to do moving forward and hopefully fans of those schools will come out and support their teams.”

The next scheduled high school game at Modern Woodmen Park is on May 19, when Davenport Central is scheduled to meet Rock Island in a 3:30 p.m. game before a River Bandits game against Peoria.

Pleasant Valley and Bettendorf are scheduled to meet there at 3:30 p.m. on May 22, while a June 24 game between Davenport Assumption and Wilton will start at 4 p.m. following a River Bandits game. On July 1, North Scott is scheduled to play Davenport West beginning at 3:30 p.m. before a Quad-Cities game.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.