There will be more high school football games this fall at Dacotah Bank Stadium than college contests.

The state-of-art facility and home of the Northern State Wolves will host at least eight high school games this season and potentially more after hosting two prep games in its inaugural season last year.

It was announced last spring that Aberdeen Roncalli will play its home games at the stadium and there are at least four more prep games scheduled in September as part of the Lake Region Conference Classic. Those games will feature Langford Area against Northwestern at 5 p.m., and Warner against Faulkton at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23, and Ipswich against Leola-Frederick at 1 p.m., and Great Plains Lutheran against North Central at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24.

“Those schools reached out and said hey, we’d love to have the opportunity and we were able to work out a deal with them that gave them a chance to come and play,” said first-year NSU athletic director Nate Davis. “It’s great for everybody. It’s great for those high schools to come and play. Those high school kids get a chance to play in a fantastic facility and feel like they’re playing in a big-time environment. It’s great for their fans to come.”

Of course it also benefits Northern as the school gets to showcase what it has to offer to prospective students.

“It’s great for Northern, because we get all those kids on campus and they get to see Northern State and not only the athletic facility piece of it,” Davis said, “they get to see the campus a little bit and just get exposed to Northern, maybe for the first time.”

The Wolves have six home dates on their schedule his fall.

Roncalli will play four regular-season games at the site (against Groton, Mobridge-Pollock, St. Thomas More, and Clark-Willow Lake), and could potentially host home playoff games.

Davis said there could be even more high school games in addition to the eight that are confirmed.

“We’ve actually had a few other schools reaching out to see if we can fit in some different dates, so there’s a potential we’ll have a few more high school games as well,” he said. “We’re still kind of working through those details.”

While Davis is new to the area, he said that in his past experiences he has witnessed the saying, if you build it they will come. That appears to be true with Dacotah Bank Stadium.

“It’s my understanding the intent of that facility was we want it to be a great tool for Northern and for the Northern football program, and it is and will continue to be, but we want to showcase it and use it,” Davis said. “One of the great things about facilities, I’ve learned this over my career, is when you build great facilities and you have great facilities, everybody wants to use them and that’s a good thing.”

Davis said there are a few things to keep in mind about a joint-use facility.

“There can be challenges with that. You have to work out schedules and make sure you don’t have crossovers and conflicts,” he said. “And there’s a personnel standpoint to all of that, of making sure you have people to work and cover games, and you’re not wearing out your people.”

That said, Davis is excited about the prospect of having no less than 13 high school teams from across the region getting a chance to run out on the field and having the experience of playing in one of the premier stadiums in the Midwest.

“It’s just fun for us to host those things on campus,” Davis said. “It’s great for Northern State. It’s great for Aberdeen.”