Thief River Falls athletes run homecoming football 53.5 miles from East Grand Forks to Thief River Falls
Oct. 1—An old Thief River Falls homecoming tradition has been brought back to life.
On Friday morning, Thief River Falls' cross country team took a handoff of the game football from East Grand Forks coach Ryan Kasowski at the 50-yard line of Senior High field before embarking on a 53.5-mile relay run back to midfield at Prowler Field in Thief River Falls.
The Green Wave and the Prowlers kick off in a homecoming high school football game at 6 p.m. Friday night.
At 10 a.m., the Thief River Falls runners started the trek toward Thief River Falls with the entire team running the first 1.5 miles to the edge of East Grand Forks.
The runners had two vans as bookends to protect the runners. One of the vans was fashioned with a portable toilet hooked behind in a trailer.
After the runners arrived at the edge of East Grand Forks, each Prowler runner took a turn running 2.0 miles.
The Prowler runners will be met in Thief River Falls by the town's police department, who will escort the runners from Red Robe Park to the football stadium, where the runners will take a final lap around the track and present the game ball in time for the coin toss at 5:40 p.m.
17 miles into the journey! We've made it to Sherack, and a bit ahead of schedule! #ballrunhoco21. pic.twitter.com/ZISJy4dUsM
— TRF Cross Country (@TRFCrossCountry) October 1, 2021
Thief River Falls cross country coach Natasha Reierson said the school used to run the game ball from Crookston to Thief River Falls, a shorter distance of 38 miles.
But the tradition has been dormant for at least the last 10 years. It was rekindled off the idea of one of Reierson's runners that he brought up during a preseason meeting.
"I told him, you focus on running, and I'll focus on the logistics," Reierson said. "There's a lot of logistics. You can't just get in a van and run."
Reierson said her runners are excited to take part in the rekindled tradition.
"We only have one home meet a year, and it's before school starts so our kids don't get to be part of a lot of sporting events," Reierson said. "The community is really excited, too. Hopefully, this can bring some excitement to the football game tonight.
"It has been so great. The community has been so supportive. We put it out there that we are doing this just three or four days ago, and I've got calls and texts from school board members and business owners and people saying it's such a cool idea."
Thief River Falls used nine runners: Zach Wikert, Brooke Olson, Isaac Mauch, Dru Harbott, Korben Coffman, William MacLean, Ruby Geiser, Sophia Eidsmoe and Briley Olsonawski.
