Notre Dame sports finally is using long-held land in Northwest Peoria. What's next for it?

Peoria Notre Dame has begun using its own small slice of River City paradise.

Nearly a dozen years have passed since then-Bishop Daniel Jenky blessed the 71.5 acres near Allen Road and Willow Knolls Drive — destined at the time to house a $10 million PND athletic complex and eventually a new school.

Now, Peoria's private Catholic high school recently started using the fields for some of its sports teams. The facility is a bit hidden, accessed by driving through the neighborhood on North Villa Lake Drive, just off Willow Knolls.

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“It’s pretty wild,” PND boys soccer coach Mike Bare said. “When you get out there, you have no idea all that is there. You’re kind of in your own world. … You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, but you’re kind of in the heart of the city.”

Bare is hosting his youth camp in June there for a third successive summer, giving the on-campus field time to recover between the girls spring season and boys starting in the fall. “It’s been fantastic for us to have a second facility,” he said, noting his program also utilizes the secondary location for all the Irish summer contact days.

Initially, the eight-figure development plans called for a stadium holding between 1,200-3,000 seats to be used for football, soccer and track and field. The original project also included multiple baseball and softball fields along with practice soccer and football fields.

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PND athletics director Dave Rudolph says he is often asked about the long-term plans for the land, but his answer remains consistent.

“It’s not been decided,” Rudolph said. “Right now, we’re going to keep it the way it is and use it for what we’ve been using it for. Within a few years, hopefully, we’ll have something definitive in the direction we’re going.”

Phone messages this week to PND Chief Operation Officer Grant McInnis were not returned.

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As of this week, there are grass soccer and football fields — the latter equipped with a donated scoreboard. The playing surfaces also include bleachers, which provide about the same amount of seating as the current football field on campus at PND. The site also includes a three-stall storage shed, a building that houses a concession stand and restrooms and parking.

“It’s pretty humble right now,” Rudolph said. “It’s a really cool thing. It makes you start to dream again about all that.”

Although the new soccer field hasn’t hosted a varsity game, it is regulation size. In a pinch, the field would be available for the five-time state championship squad. The JV boys soccer team held its in-season practices there, while the football team conducted summer contact days on the football field.

Home junior varsity football games were played there for the first time during the 2023 season. “That was a cool thing to see,” Rudolph said, remarking the field was "just big enough" for the JV game.

However, that does not mean there aren’t fantasies of what this future home of Irish athletics could bring. “We’re blessed to have a beautiful grass field,” Bare said, “but long term, it would be great to have a turf option somewhere as well.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Notre Dame sports finally is using long-held land in Northwest Peoria. What's next for it?