'We're still strong': Tosa East kicks off a season full of road games after flood destroys home field

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Wauwatosa East student section dressed in a Hawaiian theme and loudly cheered each Raiders score Thursday night, Aug. 21. However, they weren't in the familiar bleachers of Hart Park.

Instead, Tosa East kicked off its 2025 football season at Milwaukee Public Schools' Vincent High. The switch was necessary after historic flooding earlier this month ravaged Hart Park, rolling up the field's artificial turf and submerging much of the school's athletic equipment.

Andrew Thompson, the school's athletic director, said he's coming to grips with the logistical headaches ahead.

"Every single ball, tennis ball was lost. Every cart was lost," Thompson said. "All the little things you don't think of until you have to repurchase everything to kind of get back to normal."

While replacing tennis, track and football practice equipment will be quite the unexpected expense, Thompson also acknowledged the most impactful effects of the flood happened off the field.

"Hart Park will be fine. We'll figure it out," he said. "But seeing the side of the roads throughout Wauwatosa, where it's people's basements, basically, on the side of the street waiting to get picked up is what kind of laid heavy on my brain."

The stands on Thursday were filled with people who've witnessed some of that destruction firsthand. Eric Brown, whose son, Aidan, is a junior on the team, said he spent part of last week helping out a good friend.

"Whose first floor was filled to six inches above their first floor, meaning their whole basement was filled, Brown said. "Helped her out, had to clear out her house and, yeah, devastated."

On the field, the Raiders will be nomads having to live up to their name. Thompson acknowledged the football team will likely have to play all three of its remaining home games away from Hart Park.

In that case, the team is prepared to play all three of those "home" games on the campus of their archrival, Wauwatosa West.

"We got our work cut out for us," Thompson said. "Speaking with the band director, our student council advisor, like, thinking about October 10th, which was scheduled to be our homecoming, how do we have a parade and end up at the west side?"

Regardless of where their season plays out, Brown said players and parents were confident the team will persevere.

"We're still strong, and we're supporting our boys and saying Hart Park don't matter," he said. "We'll take home field anywhere we can take it."

Long-term, Thompson said he plans to store the new batch of equipment at Hart Park once it's rebuilt.

While the park has now flooded badly after heavy rainstorms this summer, in 2010 and in 1997 and 1998, he still trusted city and school officials if they conclude it's safe to keep the park as a home base.

"They're not gonna suggest we store everything there if they don't think things are safe," he said. "I mean, this was an anomaly, an act of God."