By Jesse Robinson
St. Scholastica Sports Information Director
St. Scholastica Head Football Coach Greg Carlson (right) had 92 players put on the helmet Monday as the Saints held their first-ever football practice at the new Saints Field on campus.
The day was filled with meetings, orientation sessions, and a lot of physical testing. The players were given their practice equipment and the players hit the field for the first time in the school’s 96-year history.
It has been 670 days since the College of St. Scholastica Board of Trustees announced that they would be adding football as the college’s 19th varsity sport. It has been 526 days since Carlson was named the head coach at St. Scholastica. All the hard work in those 526 days of gathering up kids and finding assistant coaches had led to Monday.
“Recruiting has been the biggest challenge up to this point,” said Carlson. “Now the biggest challenge will be teaching the offense and defense to these kids.”
The practice ended with conditioning and the team showed camaraderie in cheering on one another.
“I liked the effort and enthusiasm, Carlson said. “There was a lot of positive energy out here.”
Also Monday, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) announced the coaches’ preseason poll. Northwestern College was the unanimous choice to win the conference for the 11th time. Martin Luther College, who finished second last year, was picked to finish second again this season. University of Minnesota-Morris was voted to finish third, while Crown College was picked fourth. The Saints were picked to finish fifth by the coaches.
UMAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Northwestern – 16 (4)
2. Martin Luther – 12 (1)
3. UM-Morris – 10
4. Crown – 7
5. St. Scholastica – 5
FYI
Saints’ ’08 Schedule |
