Mount Vernon Mustangs embrace ‘electricity’ of new activities complex

MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon High School Mustangs will play their first football game at their brand-new $7 million activities complex Friday against Davenport Assumption.

Before that, on Thursday, the community celebrated the grand opening of the new complex, built next to the high school at 731 Palisades Rd. SW, Mount Vernon, by filling the 1,500-seats in the stadium, leaving standing room only.

“There’s an energy in the air, an electricity within our kids that is contagious,“ said Matt Thede, district activities director. ”I think they’re ready and excited to run into an end zone that says ‘Mustangs.’“

Thede has spent almost every day of the last three weeks out on the field, organizing the new storage shed and press box and placing garbage cans and picnic tables around the stadium.

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The football team was able to practice on the field this week, so the game Friday “feels more like a home game than an away game,” he said.

Ethan Wood, 16, a junior at Mount Vernon High who plays tight end and defense on the football team, said with a smile that he “can’t really explain” his excitement.

“It’s good to have something our own we can call home,” Wood said.

Natalie Nederhiser, 17, a senior football cheerleader, is looking forward to being able to do more stunts as a cheer team during games because the track around the field provides more room. One of her favorite stunts is throwing a “flyer” into the air, she said.

Ella Krob, 17, also a senior football cheerleader, agrees. “Our old field wasn’t the right size. Our community outgrew it,” she said before running onto the turf to perform with her team for the grand opening Thursday night.

Without local woman’s donation, ‘this project does not happen’

The complex is named the Martha Parsons & Family Activities Complex after Martha Parsons, who made the lead gift to the project and the largest donation in the history of the district and Mount Vernon Community School District Foundation.

The total amount of donations to the project was $2.7 million. The remaining $4.3 million in cost was funded with school district funds and loans.

“The ability to help children in this community that I’ve called home for so many years now brings me immense pride,” Parsons said in a news release. Parsons has lived in Mount Vernon for more than 20 years.

“I believe that children deserve our very best, and I want the children in this community to know that my family and I believe in them,” Parsons said.

The complex features a turf field with an eight-lane track and a place for the marching band to practice and perform — as well as for physical education classes. There is a concessions stand and restrooms building with outdoor patio space, a press box, a scoreboard and more than 560 parking stalls.

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For years, the school district has hosted games at Cornell College and practiced on non-regulation fields.

“Martha’s gift helped make this dream a reality.” Superintendent Greg Batenhorst said in a news release. ”Simply put, without her generosity this project does not happen. The district cannot thank Martha Parsons and her family enough … This is a game changer for our students. We are honored that Martha is such a good friend to the district, and are forever grateful to her for her unprecedented gift.”

Other donors include Mount Vernon residents Ron and Bev Amstrong and alumni Tristan Wirfs, for whom the discus and shot-put field is named.

Ron graduated from Mount Vernon in 1964 and was an all-conference football player for the Mustangs. His two children also grew up in the school district.

Wirfs, who graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 2017, was a thrower for the Mustang track and field team. As a sophomore, he qualified for Drake Relays in the shot put, placed runner-up in that same event at state track and took home the state title in discus.

In his junior and senior years, Wirfs took home the Drake Relays and state track title in both throwing events. As a senior, he was recognized as the boys’ state track Gatorade Athlete of the Year — the same year he won state wrestling and played on the state-qualifying football team.

He went on to be an offensive lineman at the University of Iowa, where he was all-Big Ten as a junior and offensive lineman of the year. Wirfs was picked 13th in NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which won the Super Bowl his rookie year, when he started every game.

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Facility builds on ‘Mustang and community pride’

Back at the stadium’s grand opening Thursday, LeAnn Briesemister was filling bags of popcorn at the new concessions stand. LeAnn, who is dual-treasurer of the school’s booster club with her husband Eric Briesemister, volunteers for the school about 10 to 15 hours a week.

Her sons Joe, 16, and Alex, 14, are linemen on the football team, and Alex also plays trumpet in the marching band.

“They have no trouble getting volunteer hours with their parents regularly helping run concessions,” LeAnn said.

During football games, they can sell as many as 850 sandwiches — tenderloins, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, brats, hot dogs — “endless cups” of a crowd favorite mac and cheese and “nobody knows how much popcorn,” LeAnn said.

One of the needs at the new stadium was more counter space in the concessions stand, which they now have. Soon, a TV will be installed, so people can watch the game while waiting for their food, LeAnn said.

Earlier in the week as LeAnn was helping move concessions into the building, the freshman and sophomore football team was ending practice. Without being asked, the team began helping stock food and drinks.

“There’s so much Mustang and community pride to have our own place to have band competitions, host our own track meets,” LeAnn said. “We have the most amazing kids. It just makes you want to do better for them.”

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