RAPID CITY, SD – The Rapid City Bocce Complex will be renamed after the woman who spearheaded the effort to establish the 16-court complex in the heart of downtown Rapid City.

Signage will soon go up at the Monica Burgess Bocce Complex at the intersection of Omaha Street and Mount Rushmore Road.

Monica Burgess led the effort for the courts with a passion for expanding opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities in Rapid City. Developing partnerships with private donors and the city, Burgess raised more than a million dollars for Special Olympics South Dakota to construct the courts and worked with the city in garnering $945,000 in Vision Funds to complete the project.

“(Monica) had the connections and made it happen. It was unbelievable,” Scott Anderson, interim Parks Director, City of Rapid City said. “She pretty much spearheaded everything.”

Phase I, the first eight bocce courts, and Phase II of the project, an additional eight courts, have been completed thanks to private funding Burgess put together. Phase III has the Vision Fund dollars attached and includes moving lights, building a shelter, and restroom area.

Burgess, who passed away in June 2026, had a professional career that spanned decades. In 2002, she retired to Rapid City, becoming a partner in Black Hills Harley-Davidson. In 2008, she was instrumental in expanding opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities in Rapid City and, along with others in the community, helped create the Rapid City Flame.

Serving as Special Olympics Board Chair, Burgess led the effort for the state’s largest bocce complex to be located in Rapid City. Partnering with Rusty Wallace and the NASCAR Foundation and Rod Woodruff of the Buffalo Chip Campground, the project became a reality just off Omaha Street near Central High School. Construction began in 2024.

On Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, hundreds of athletes and families gathered for Special Olympics South Dakota Fall Classic at the bocce complex in Rapid City.

The complex served a real need for Special Olympics South Dakota. Prior to the construction of the Rapid City Bocce Complex, Special Olympics South Dakota held their Fall Classic bocce tournament at Star of the West, having to set up bocce courts for the competition.

“It took so much time for them to set up, so they wanted something permanent,” Anderson said.

The bocce complex is home to the Special Olympics Fall Classic but also serves a community-wide bocce ball interest. After the second phase of the project, Burgess approached the city Parks Department about creating a city bocce league.

Matt Brandhagen, City of Rapid City Recreation Manager, said he didn’t know much about bocce ball at the time, but the department worked with Burgess to create the league.

Today, the city hosts both a fall and spring league and in the league’s first year, 2025, the city had 26 teams compete.

“This is something she loved and wanted to do,” Brandhagen said. “Looking back, us helping her get volunteers for her programs and her getting teams for us… She was just a cool lady.”

Tiffany Smith, who is the Chair of the Special Olympics South Dakota Red Flame Committee, appealed to the City Parks and Recreation Department in September to rename the complex after Burgess.

“Naming the complex in Monica’s honor would be a meaningful tribute to a woman who believed in the abilities and potential of every athlete and who dedicated herself to creating greater opportunities for others,” Smith wrote in her appeal. “It would ensure that her name and her legacy remain connected to a place that will continue to inspire inclusion, competition, friendship, and community for generations.”

Renaming the Rapid City Bocce Complex to the Monica Burgess Bocce Complex at West Memorial Park has been approved and will be formally completed as soon as the signs are in place.