Chiefs to Host Peoria Notre Dame Football's Shamrock Classic

Irish will play Normal West at Dozer Park for Homecoming in October

By Nathan Baliva

February 17, 2015

Peoria, IL- In a Dozer Park first, the Peoria Chiefs will host a high school football game on Friday, October 2, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. as the Peoria Notre Dame Irish host the Normal West Wildcats in the inaugural Shamrock Classic. The contest will be a part of the Big Twelve schedule and also serve as Notre Dame's 2015 Homecoming game.

"This is a very exciting day for the Chiefs and Dozer Park," said Chiefs President Rocky Vonachen. "We have been looking at other uses for the stadium and with all the support in the area for high school football we thought this would be the perfect opportunity."

Tickets for the game will go on sale as the game approaches. Tickets will also be available for group and party areas at Dozer Park, including the luxury suites and party decks.

The Irish are coming off an historic season under coach Joe Walters with their first 9-0 regular season and a number one seed in the 6A IHSA playoffs. Notre Dame won their first two playoff games 42-7 and 41-0 before beating East St. Louis Senior 49-27 in the quarterfinals. The Irish saw their 12-1 season end in the semifinals with a 32-25 loss to Lemont.

Normal West (8-3) also made the playoffs in 2014, losing 63-28 to the same East St. Louis team in the second round of the 6A playoffs. The Wildcats went 7-2 in the regular season and 5-1 in the Big Twelve conference.

The Big Twelve conference will be expanding in 2015 to include Peoria Notre Dame along with Peoria Richwoods, Peoria Manual and Peoria High School. This game at Dozer Park will count in the conference standings and is a Notre Dame home game.

The game will be audio streamed online through the Chiefs Broadcast Network and all other amenities at Dozer Park will also be used including the HD Videoboard, concession stands, party areas and suites. Since opening in May 2002, Dozer Park has hosted music concerts, a MMA event in 2010 and multiple road races and walks, but never a football game.

Chiefs groundskeeper Mike Reno will handle the field work to transition Dozer Park from a baseball stadium to a football stadium. The mound will be removed with the field running down the third base line and into left-center field. Reno has plenty of football experience having worked on NFL grounds crews in Arizona, Miami and Washington D.C. In addition he works with the NFL annually at the Super Bowl and to prepare the field for the NFL London games at Wembley Stadium.