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KEIZERTIMES.COM
7th Annual
BLUE
DAY
Celtics are coming
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary High School’s
seventh annual Blue Day is
Saturday, Aug. 18.
The event begins at 8:30
a.m. with a pancake breakfast,
$5 for adults and $3 for youth,
in the south end zone of the
stadium.
While McNary Youth
Football teams will scrimmage
from 9 to 10:30 a.m., new this
year, Keizer Soccer Club will
take the fi eld from 10:30 to
11.
“We’ve always done the
youth football and that’s great
but I think it’s really important
that we’re brining some of the
other sports in,” said Brad Lo-
max, football coach and busi-
ness teacher at McNary.
FBLA students planned
the event. Instead of the usual
BBQ, food trucks will begin
serving lunch at 10:30 a.m.
The new $100,000 score-
board will be dedicated at
11:15 a.m.
Varsity soccer scrimmages
are scheduled for 11:30 and
noon. In the gym, McNary’s
volleyball teams will scrim-
mage from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Junior varsity football will
then take the fi eld at 1 p.m.
followed by varsity at 1:30.
Admission to Blue Day is
free.
Saturday, August 18
Schedule of Events
TIME
EVENT
8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Pancake Breakfast
Adults - $5 & Youth - $3
LOCATION
9:00 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.
McNary Youth Flag Football
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
Main Field
9:20 a.m. – 9:50 a.m.
McNary Youth Tackle Football
Rookie & 11 Man
Main Field
9:50 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
McNary Youth Tackle Football
5th, 6th, and 7th Grades
Main Field
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Fall Sports Parent Meeting
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Keizer Soccer Club
10:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Food Trucks Begin Serving
11:15 a.m.
National Anthem
AFJROTC & McNary Band
Main Field
11:15 a.m. – 11:25 a.m.
Scoreboard Dedication
Main Field
11:30 a.m.
Announce Cross Country
Main Field
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Girls Varsity Soccer
Main Field
12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Boys Varsity Soccer
Main Field
South Endzone
of Stadium
Auditorium
Main Field
Parking Lot
12:00 p.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Frosh Volleyball
Gym
12:15 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
JV Volleyball
Gym
12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Frosh Football
12:30 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Varsity Volleyball
Main Field
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
JV Football
Main Field
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Varsity Football
Main Field
Gym
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Erik Barker, left, Junior Walling, Noah Bach and Layton Thurlow run sprints at football practice on Monday, Aug. 13.
Volcanoes president retiring
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
For 22 seasons, Rick Nel-
son has not missed a Salem-
Keizer Volcanoes home game.
But like all baseball streaks,
that must come to an end, as
Nelson is retiring as president
of stadium operations at the
end of the 2018 season.
Nelson has been friends
with Jerry Walker, owner of
the Volcanoes, for 42 years.
The two met in the circula-
tion department at the Ever-
ett Herald.
After 20 years in the news-
paper industry, Nelson left his
job as circulation director at
a newspaper in California to
join Walker with the Belling-
ham Giants.
He then came with Jerry
and his wife Lisa to Keizer
in October of 1996 to meet
with contractors, architects
and city offi cials about build-
ing a new stadium.
“We liked this location be-
cause of the proximity to I-5
and the amount of vehicles
going by and the exposure
that we get,” Nelson said.
“The city was looking for a
catalyst to get Keizer Station
going. By bringing a stadium
in here, we brought in all of
the infrastructure for Keizer
Station. The water, the sewer,
the power, to make that hap-
pen was because we were
here. That’s why the city in-
vested in it and they’ve been
great partners.”
Work on the stadium be-
gan in early January of 2017
and was completed in June in
time for the start of the base-
ball season.
However, the fi rst game
was rained out. There have
only been three other rain
outs since.
“It was done and ready to
go and God stepped in and
said no, you’re going to wait
one more day,” Nelson said.
“We had over 4,000 people
here that night but they came
back the next night and we
did it again.”
The Volcanoes play 76
games, 38
in Keizer
and 38 on
the road,
in
79
days each
summer.
A
s
president
of
sta-
dium op-
erations,
there isn’t
much that
Nelson
d o e s n ’t
do.
“This
is Single A
short season baseball so we all
wear many hats here,” Nelson
said. “It’s a team effort and if
it needs to be done we step in
and get it done. My job here
is to make sure that the fans
that come out have a good
time.”
And the work doesn’t stop
after the summer baseball
season. Volcanoes Stadium is
also home to Corban Uni-
versity’s baseball program and
hosts events like the OSAA
state baseball championships
and RV and car shows year
round.
There are also renewals for
season tickets and marketing
to take care of.
Since the San Francisco
Giants Single A short sea-
son affi liate moved to Keizer,
the Volcanoes have won fi ve
Northwest League champi-
Rick Nelson has
three World Series
rings from the San
Francisco Giants.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Rick Nelson is retiring after 22 years as president of stadium operations with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
onships—1998, 2001, 2006,
2007 and 2009.
More than 100 Volcano
players have reached the big
leagues where the Giants
have won three World Se-
ries—2010, 2012 and 2014.
Nelson has rings from all
eight titles.
“We’ve had great coaches,”
Nelson said. “The Giants are
a great organization.”
Retiring will allow Nelson
to take a summer vacation
with his family for the fi rst
time in 22 years and give him
more time to spend in Dub-
lin, Ireland, where is daughter
Zoe, a 2013 McNary gradu-
ate, is a veterinary student.
It will also drastically
shorten his wife’s commute,
who as an employee of Alas-
ka Airlines, has driven over
400,000 miles commuting
back and forth to work from
Keizer over the past 22 years.
The Nelson’s have a fl oat-
ing home and a sailboat on
the Columbia River about
three miles east of the airport.
Nelson will miss the peo-
ple he interacts with each
season the most.
“A lot of the fans have
become friends of mine,” he
said. “We’re basically putting
on a show 38 times a year. It’s
our job to make that happen
and have the players and the
fans have a good time here.”
But Nelson isn’t com-
pletely going away.
“I’m still going to be
around,” he said. “It’s not like
I’m walking away. I’m just
not going to be here as of-
ten. I’ll come in if they need
something because after 22
years of gaining knowledge
of what’s gone on here, there’s
still a lot to share.”