Historic Stamford ball field now home to the Southern Valley-Alma Saints

STAMFORD, Neb. (KOLN) - A ball field that has served as a community gathering spot for generations in Stamford is now being used by Southern Valley Schools.

The school purchased the field from the Village of Stamford in 2019 and has since taken over all maintenance and renovations. The field is now home to the Southern Valley-Alma Saints softball program.

The field has deep roots in Stamford. Community members recall two local teams — the Playboys and the Country Boys — that once competed there.

“My dad played on that field way back when,” Susan Bose said. “There was always a softball game or baseball game going on up there.”

The field was dedicated in memory of Bill Dunkas, who spent years contributing to the baseball program there.

“It was dedicated in memory of my dad for all the years that he had put into the baseball program,” Bose said. “He coached lots of teams. He even coached the Country Boys and the Playboys. He did lots of good things for our little community.”

At the first game in the fall of 2019, following the completion of field upgrades, Southern Valley invited the Dunkas family to throw the first pitch.

Since the school took over, a number of upgrades have been completed, with volunteers helped carry out much of the work.

“Since 2019, we have moved in the fence to regulation softball size,” Southern Valley 7-12 Principal and Athletic Director Josh Lanik said. “We have renovated the outfield. We have underground sprinklers throughout our infield and our outfield surface. We have redone our surface on the infield as well. We have added a scoreboard out there on the outfield. We’ve got new dugouts, as the previous dugouts blew over in storm. So we built some new dugouts a few years ago and then I believe three summers ago, we built a batting cage.”

More recent work includes a rebuilt backstop. “We had some older fence that needed to be replaced. And so our maintenance man himself just came out one day and designed it and put it together,” Lanik said.

The school has also developed partnerships with local businesses and the Village of Stamford to support operations at the field.

“We have a great partnership with the Village of Stamford, and actually the concession stand is run 100% by volunteers in Stamford,” Lanik said. “All the proceeds go to them and their scholarship fund and their local activities.”

The local bank hosts a free tailgate party at one home game per year and provides internet service to the field at no cost, allowing the school to stream all home games.

School officials said having a dedicated softball facility is notable for a school of Southern Valley’s size. “For us as a school, it’s fantastic to have a facility of this nature at our size of a class C-D school,” Lanik said. “Not everybody is fortunate to own their own softball field.”

Community members with ties to the field’s history said they are glad to see it in use again. “It just makes my heart feel good to know that it’s still a vital part of our community by having the high school take over the field,” Bose said. “There’s still games sometimes twice a week up there.”

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