Central Falcons?

More like Central Nomads.

With the announcement earlier this week that Central’s $7.89 million football, soccer and track stadium won’t be ready this fall, the football team’s regular-season schedule has all of a sudden turned into a nine-game road trip.

“We kind of addressed it over the summer and at the beginning of the season,” Central coach Scott Mirkes said. “It wasn’t something that was any big surprise.

“Our kids have been pretty ambivalent — not ambivalent about having a new stadium at some point — but they’ve been taking it as it comes. They know it’s out of their control.”

I feel bad for the team’s 15 seniors.

They have witnessed the ongoing construction. They have waited for their chance to christen the new synthetic turf. Now, they will get to come back as alumni and watch the first game in 2010 from the new bleachers with the rest of the fans.

Understandably, the senior Falcons were chafed after receiving the disappointing news.

“You play for four years at your high school, you’d like everyone to see you on your field as a senior,” senior linebacker Joe Carney said. “It’s sort of a bummer.”

Senior cornerback Josh Gunderson added: “We’re all kind of upset that we won’t be able to play on the nice, new field that they said was going to be ready by Week 1. When we found out it wasn’t going to be ready, we were kind of bummed.”

Initially, Central planned to play its first game at the new stadium against Waterford on Oct. 9. The Homecoming game will now be played at Indian Trail Academy.

“I’m sure Homecoming will have a little bit of a different feel to it,” Mirkes said.

The season finale at Wilmot on Oct. 21 was also moved from Paddock Lake to Frank Bucci Field.

“I thought we would still be able to play a few games on it this year,” senior offensive lineman Ty Hendrickson said. “It’s not the best feeling, but it does motivate us.”

After playing its first “home” game at Indian Trail on Sept. 12 against Burlington, the Falcons will play their second “home” game 1 p.m. Saturday when they host Badger in a Southern Lakes Conference matchup at Frank Bucci Field.

Indian Trail and friendly rival Wilmot have turned out to be a godsend to the Falcons.

“The fields that we’re playing on now for our home games are nice,” Carney said. “Those are great fields that they got for us.”

And, given how Central has performed so far this season, the Falcons have adapted nicely away from home. They have won three of their first four games and are 1-1 in the SLC.

“I think they kind of feel like they have a home,” Mirkes said, “but by the same token, they’re pretty comfortable playing on the road right now.”

In the end, as long as the Falcons keep winning, they could probably care less where they play the games.

“We’re for sure looking at making it into the playoffs and then making a playoff run,” Carney said. “We’ve turned things around this year. Our aspirations are pretty high right now.”

Andrew Horschak is in his 15th year of covering high school football for the Kenosha News. Contact him at ahorschak@kenoshanews.com

For capsule preview of each County game plus standings and County statistical leaders, pick up a copy of Friday’s Kenosha News ... For game coverage, check out Saturday’s and Sunday’s News. ... For a recap of the local high school football weekend, read the “Monday Morning Quarterback” in Monday’s News.