Drake football prepares for showdown with South Dakota State at Target Field in Minnesota

Drake football coach Todd Stepsis has a special picture he keeps in his office from his wedding reception in 2010. Stepsis, his wife Angie and the entire wedding party are sitting in a dugout at Great American Ball Park, home of the baseball's Cincinnati Reds.

“The picture’s kind of cool because the lighting is coming from the video board,” Stepsis said.

The ballpark provided the perfect setting for the big occasion. Stepsis grew up rooting for the Reds. His new wife, meanwhile, had family members who worked at the stadium and helped land their picture on the stadium's jumbotron.

“Pretty cool,” Stepsis said.

Stepsis will get another memorable moment at a baseball stadium this weekend when the Drake football team takes on the reigning FCS national champions from South Dakota State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The teams will tangle at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.

“That (baseball) was my favorite sport, probably, growing up,” Stepsis said. “But I just happened to be a little bit better in football later in my high school career.”

Football is his vocation but baseball still holds a special place in the heart of the head coach. Stepsis, a native of Shelby, Ohio, grew up going to Reds games. Early in his coaching career, he played in an 18-and-over baseball league.

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Stepsis threw out a first pitch at an Iowa Cubs game once. He took his staff to a Kansas City Royals game this season when they went to visit former Drake football player and coach Brendan Daly, the linebackers coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Stepsis still keeps close tabs on the Reds and plays in a 40-and-over baseball league in Des Moines, roaming the outfield and sometimes getting reps in the middle infield.

“I’m one of the few guys that can still run decent,” he joked.

That passion for the game is part of the reason why Stepsis wanted to have his wedding reception at a big-league ballpark. And it’s a big reason why he jumped at the opportunity to play South Dakota State at the Twins' ballpark when representatives for the Jackrabbits pitched playing at a neutral site instead of in Brookings, S.D.

“I had to process it because I couldn’t think of a reason why we wouldn’t and then I'm kind of like, ‘Why would you even ask?’” Stepsis recalled.

So the schools, which had booked the game well ahead of 2023, moved it to Minneapolis, a city with lots of Drake alumni. Stepsis figured it was a good chance for Bulldog fans to see his team play. And it was a great opportunity for his team to experience something special.

“For us, our No. 1 mission here is to try to create an experience that’s going to be one of the best of our players’ lives and one that they’re not going to forget,” Stepsis said. “To be able to do things like this, to play against a defending national champ in a baseball stadium, that’s going to be something that they’re going to talk about the rest of their lives. To me, it really is the perfect storm of what we’re trying to do here at Drake.”

Playing South Dakota State gives the Bulldogs an opportunity to be in the spotlight with one of the top teams in the nation. It’s a similar spot the Bulldogs found themselves in back in 2018 when they traveled to Ames to take on Iowa State. On a cold and wet December day, Drake stayed within striking distance of the Alamo Bowl-bound Cyclones and even led as late as the third quarter.

The close call with the Cyclones was a headline-grabber for the non-scholarship team from the Pioneer Football League and a game the team has repeatedly reminded possible recruits about through the years.

Stepsis, a defensive coordinator for Drake at the time of the Iowa State game, is hoping Saturday’s showdown in the Twin Cities could have the same sort of impact on his program. The Bulldogs opened the season with a 55-7 loss at North Dakota and an overtime loss to Northwestern of Orange City, last season's NAIA champion.

A competitive game with South Dakota State would build some momentum heading into the PFL season.

“Obviously if you play well, like we did against Iowa State, the ramifications going across our league and the FCS and the Des Moines community, I think will really ring (loudly),” he said.

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Drake football will play at Target Field, home of Minnesota Twins