Football | Field 2 Field

February 26, 2023February 26, 2023

San Francisco 49ers Trainer Living His Dream

San Francisco, California, traffic in the afternoon can be a bit much, especially if you’re from a small town in the Midwest. However, Dustin Little, a native of Castlewood, South Dakota, makes the trip twice a day to and from work. The small-town native recently finished his fourth season as the Head Athletic Trainer for the San Francisco 49ers.

Life in the NFL is known as a “grind” for players and coaches, but trainers put in a whole lot of time taking care of those million-dollar athletes. While taking over the team’s training staff was a little overwhelming at first, Little says he’s much more comfortable in the leadership role.

“I’ve had the chance to work with John (Lynch, General Manager) and Kyle (Shanahan, Head Coach) for four years, and I’ve had my stuff in place that long as well,” Little said. “Being able to implement many of the things the staff wanted to do when we first arrived is a big help.”

As the leader of the training staff, Little has gotten a lot of enjoyment out of seeing the members function as a unit. It’s important to work well together because the training and performance staff spend a lot of time on the job. As the Head Trainer, Little outlined what a typical day looks like during the season, and his days start early.

Long Days

“Most days, I get up around 4 a.m. and head in to work out for around 45 minutes,” he said. “I’ll get to my desk between 5:30 and 6:00. I’ll spend some time making sure things are lined up for the day and figure out what we want to accomplish that week too. We’ll usually meet as a performance staff around 6:30 a.m.”

Treatments begin bright and early at 7 a.m. before the players head off for meetings. Long-term injury treatments begin at 8:00. Little will also sit in on certain meetings before giving injury updates to San Francisco G.M. Lynch and Coach Shanahan.

After that, they begin pre-practice work before joining the players on the practice field. Once practice is done, they’ll do post-practice treatments before a final player meeting. After that, the day ends with even more treatment work.

‘The week starts on Monday, the day after a game, so right away we have to get a handle on the injury stuff, including imaging and communication,” Little said. “Tuesday is the players’ day off, which is a lesser day for us. We’ll do a lot of treatment that day and set up the schedule for the rest of the week.

“We have practices Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so those days are pretty similar,” he added. “Saturday is the day before a game, and it’s a little pulled back. We usually stay with the team at the hotel before game day on Sunday.”

Game Day

Sunday afternoon NFL games are some of the most-watched television programming in the country. If one of the million-dollar athletes goes down with an injury, Little and his staff are suddenly among the most important people in the stadium. He says that realization never really hit him because game days are different for the training staff compared to anyone else.

“We’re watching the game like other people, but we’re doing it for an entirely different purpose,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m looking at the players in a broad view rather than watching the ball. If I see a guy that doesn’t look right, I’ll make a note and follow up with him on the sideline.”

If a player does get hurt, Little said a lot of processes take place between the athletic staff and the team doctors. They talk about things like diagnosing an injury, the possibility of getting back into the game, or concussion protocols. They also have to communicate the status with the coaching staff as well.

The medical tent on every NFL sideline can get a lot of TV time if there are multiple injuries during a game. As viewers watch players get taken into the tent, Little said the main goal in there is to get the player evaluated as quickly as possible.

“It’s to help the doctors, the players, and me do what they need to do without the camera being on them,” he said. “We don’t do a lot of treatment in there. It’s more about evaluation and making decisions.

“Game day is different for me and my staff,” Little said. “If I want to actually watch the game, I’ll go home and check out the condensed version of the game on TV to see what happened.”

Working with Pro Athletes

National sports media have shown fans some of the worst behavior from professional athletes. While the NFL does have its share of divas, Little said that doesn’t truly apply to most of the NFL’s athletes.

“Most of our guys and other players across the league are pretty respectful and down-to-Earth good dudes,” Little said. “They make a lot of money, but most of the San Francisco guys are normal people. Guys like (tight end) George Kittle, Nick Bosa (defensive end), and Christian McCaffrey (running back) will all stop into my office for a cup of coffee and have a conversation.

“Pretty normal stuff,” Little added with a laugh. “We’ll sit and do a crossword puzzle the night before a game. It’s not as crazy as some might think.”

On the Road Again

One of the more difficult things about life in big-time sports is the constant travel. While going to some of the nation’s biggest cities might sound glamorous to many, it does get to be a grind, especially when traveling from the west coast to the east coast.

“When we’re heading to the other coast for a game, we’ll be out there for the entire week. It usually happens a couple of times per season,” he said. “My staff’s been together a while, so we know what we need to pack and bring along on the trip.

“The interesting thing about travel for us is we get police escorts to get to our planes,” Little said. “We drive right up to the plane, hop on the stairs, and climb aboard. They’re all San Francisco charters when we travel, and you can get very used to those things. We’re not going through the normal security that everyone else does.”

Now that he’s just wrapped up his fourth year, Little said he and his staff know what to expect when they get to each stadium on the road. While it might seem like fun to travel to different cities, Little doesn’t get much time to sightsee.

“I told my wife that I don’t actually travel to other cities,” he said with a laugh. “I just travel to the insides of different hotels. We usually get about two hours on a Saturday afternoon to look around. When we were in Philadelphia for the playoff game with the Eagles, we were close to a few interesting things to check out.”

Most of the time, Little says he’ll use those few hours to himself to work out and call the family back on the west coast. “I will say, the cheesesteaks in Philadelphia are especially good,” he added.

Come a Long Way from the Midwest

Little leads an extraordinarily busy life, as you can tell by now. However, he does get a chance to reflect on how far he’s come, starting in the tiny town of Castlewood, South Dakota (population 690) and moving on to Denver, Colorado (pop. 711,400), and then to San Francisco, California (pop. 815,000).

“Once in a while, I do get a chance to think about starting out in a small town before heading through Denver and arriving in San Francisco, and who I get to work withsiou,” he said. “But my mindset growing up was I had a goal and a dream and didn’t put any limitations on myself.

“I remember being a Physical Therapy student and working with a guy in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,” Little recalled. “He asked me what I wanted to do after school, and my answer was to work in the NFL as a head athletic trainer. He was a little surprised at first but recalled that I never put any limits on what I wanted to do.

“He’s telling that to other PT students now,” he added. “Go all-in on what you want to do, put a plan in place, and make good decisions along the way.”

February 4, 2021February 4, 2021

Chicken Wings and the Super Bowl – we love them both

Chicken wings and the Super Bowl go together like Abbot and Costello, socks and shoes, and w(h)ine and cheese (that last one is mostly for Packer fans – but I digress). The National Chicken Council says when Americans get together to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, February 7, a lot of us will chow down on chicken wings. The good news is there will be plenty of wings available for everyone.

Tom Super is the Senior Vice President of Communications for the NCC, a 16-year-veteran of the position. He says America’s obsession with chicken wings and the Super Bowl has grown a lot in recent years. They are projecting Americans will scarf down a record 1.42 billion chicken wings to celebrate this year’s Big Game.

“That’s up two percent from last year,” he says, “and that’s despite the complications brought on by COVID-19. When we put together our recent chicken wing report for the Super Bowl, I thought for sure we’d see a decline in the number of wings Americans will eat.

“COVID has been very hard on restaurants,” Super said. “When talking to folks in the industry, when looking at the demand numbers, and when looking at the price of wings and all the other factors involved in consumption, they’ve never been a hotter product.”

Chicken wings had an advantage over a lot of other foods served at your local restaurants. Super points out that restaurants like wing joints and pizza places were built around takeout and delivery. When indoor dining was limited or shut down, those places didn’t have to change their business model as much as other establishments. They kept right on going with carryout and delivery orders while other restaurants completely shut down.

“Wings travel well, and they hold up during delivery conditions,” he said. “They also align with consumer desires for comfort food during COVID-19.”

Chicken farmers did a great job maintaining their production through 2020, and Super says there wasn’t much of a production drop-off compared to the previous year. There should be an adequate supply level to accommodate Super Bowl fans across the country.

So, let’s put some perspective on how many chicken wings make up that estimated 1.42 billion wings that we’ll eat on Super Bowl Sunday. In simple terms, that’s a lot of chicken.

“If you were to line them up end-to-end, it would circle the entire circumference of the Earth three times,” Super says. “If you laid them end-to-end from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, they’d stretch back-and-forth 19 times.

“Let’s look at it another way,” he added. “Let’s assume that Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid could eat three wings in a minute – and yes, the actual number is probably higher – but if he ate three every minute, it would take him more than 900 years to eat 1.42 billion chicken wings.”

Some Americans are bone-in chicken wing eaters, while others prefer the boneless wings. What type of wings do the majority of football fans prefer?

America’s favorite sauce for our wings might not be what you think it is.

“We should let people know that there will not be a shortage of wings this year,” Super said. “Restaurants, food service, and retailers started pulling wings out of cold storage as far back as November to prepare for the big day.”

If there is a rush on chicken wings in the days and hours before Super Bowl Sunday, Super has this bit of advice: “Don’t wait till the last second,” he says. “That’s my advice.”

January 1, 2021January 1, 2021

The Rose Bowl at half

The Rose bowl just doesn’t look the same anymore. I freely admit the house that Jerry built looks like a great place to watch a game but it’s not the same as playing in Pasadena. Oh well. Welcome to a COVID-19 world.

Devonta Smith is a men among boys. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. 5 catches for 101 yards and a couple touchdowns is a great game for most wideouts. He has another half to play against a defense that can’t seem to stop him.

He’s making some fast people in white jerseys look really slow. They aren’t slow. I haven’t seen many Alabama games, but if the kid has played this well all year, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence might have some competition for the Heisman Trophy.

I was hoping for better things from Notre Dame. Lots of questions after the Irish were announced as one of the four national semi finalists and they’ve done almost nothing to alleviate those doubts.

To coin a basketball phrase, the Irish’s best chance coming in was likely to “take the air out of the ball.” Get an early lead and run the heck out of the ball.. They needed to keep that Bama offense off the field because the Notre Dame D can’t do much to disrupt the Tide’s offense.

That’s out the window. What now Irish fans? Can they keep it close into the fourth quarter, let alone pull off a late Christmas miracle? Or is it time to pull a beverage out of the fridge and call it good?

February 27, 2020February 27, 2020

Blogging: There’s so many things to talk about!

Blogging. What’s it all about? Every time I sit down to write a blog post, I freeze. Writer’s block is not something that happens to me very often, but in this case, I’m not sure what’s interesting enough in my life and the lives of others around me to write about.

Blogging about sports is a good place to start. Watching the Timberwolves play the Miami Heat and realizing just what a dull and uninteresting franchise they are. Notice I didn’t use the words “professional sports” in front of the word “franchise.” I’m honestly not sure they qualify. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a team revamp virtually their entire roster and not reap any kind of rewards.

I suppose I need to give them time. We’ve already given them decades and gotten a couple of good seasons for all of our patience. Where have you gone, KG? Can I ask an honest question? As good as the big KAT is, IS he the right guy to lead this franchise into the future? Fantastic offensive talent. Lousy and disinterested on the defensive end. This is a team that cannot play a lick of defense. Great to score 137 points, unless you give up 140 to the opposition. It’s still a loss.

The NFL Combine is in full swing and I couldn’t be more blasé to the whole thing. Why am I so uninspired about the Vikings and their potential future draft choices? What direction is this franchise going in and how are they going to disappoint their fans next? I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating; WHY do you want to be a running team first and spend so damn much on a quarterback and two wide receivers? I’m getting a bit of a mixed message here.

By the way, isn’t the NFL a passing league now? And if that’s the case, does Zimmer’s insistence on running the ball mean the game has passed him by a little bit? Not saying it has or it hasn’t. Just reading the tea leaves here.

On to other topics. What’s up with the coronavirus outbreak? Have you seen the hysteria surrounding the “Pandemic?” I’ve been looking behind the headlines and am finding out that the coronavirus fatality rate appears to be three percent. My South Dakota/Minnesota math tells me that 97 percent of the people who are infected appear to actually survive? If that is the case, WHY are we hearing about a “global epidemic” in every major news outlet, making it sound like the second coming of the plague? What don’t I know about this?

Why am I still on social media? I was just perusing a short time ago and couldn’t believe how much the current president is being skewered over the coronavirus. And before you get snippy, I didn’t vote for him. If I blamed presidents I didn’t vote for as much as the current political left does, NOTHING would get done. Ever. Didn’t vote for Clinton either. I’d give my kingdom for a reliable third-party candidate or possibly a middle-of-the-road Democrat. The current list of Democratic presidential candidates are all bat-crap crazy. Not sure the incumbent is a great option either.

I really enjoyed social media when it was first ramping up. After all, I’d just left full-time media for the first time in my adult life and it was my only outlet to keep doing what I loved. I really don’t enjoy it much anymore. Have we as a society ALWAYS been this spiteful and vindictive? Is social media just a convenient outlet for all that vitriol we’ve been saving up? Frankly, the behavior of grown adults on social media is the same thing we all remember growing up during the turbulent teenage years.

Well, there you go. Almost 700 words later and I guess the writer’s block is gone? I do welcome comments when I’m done blogging. You don’t have to agree with me. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Let’s be adults and educate each other about the things we don’t know. Be willing to listen to other people’s point of view once in a while. You and I both might learn something. Think I’ll try this blogging thing again really soon.

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020

Minnesota sports are confusing

Minnesota sports fans, the long-suffering bunch that we are, apparently have to suffer through another rough winter season of mediocrity. Actually, that word doesn’t apply to the “professional” basketball team. That’s just one big bucket of suck.

Wild hockey. It’s not fantastic. Watching the Bruins school the Minnesota “professional” hockey team 4-0 after two periods of play. I shudder to think how much further ahead Boston would be if the Wild hadn’t blocked 10 shots through two periods. This team cannot score goals consistently enough to win.

But how do you go about finding good offense to add to the roster with the salary cap situation and two contracts that are taking up more of that cap than they should? Minnesota sports STARTS with hockey. We call ourselves the “State of Hockey” for a reason, right?

What is it with Minnesota sports? The Wild are stuck in neutral and multiple games away from the playoffs. The Timberwolves aren’t even a blip on the sports radar in the Twin Cities. Oh my goodness, are they bad.

I know Gersson Rojas and Ryan Saunders have a plan that involves a lot of threes. It’s an offense tailored to the modern NBA game. But they don’t have players talented enough to play that system well. Isn’t that like trying to force a square peg through a round hole? As a coach, don’t you want to at least somewhat build your offense based on the skillset of your current roster?

Minnesota sports confuse me, especially when it comes to the professional football team. An 11-win season and the second round of the NFL playoffs look good on paper. They beat precisely one team with a winning record, and we were all impressed with that win in New Orleans. But then you don’t put up any kind of a fight in San Francisco? It took me back to the Philadelphia fiasco and the day the Vikings laid one of their biggest eggs in a long line of said eggs. They didn’t show up at all when they had a chance to be the first team in the NFL to HOST a Super Bowl in their home stadium.

I’d say there’s a pattern forming in which the Vikings aren’t prepared for their biggest games. Is that coaching or is that on the players?

I’m starting to sour on the purple. So, Mike Zimmer wants to run the ball? Fine. Then WHY did you invest $84 million in a quarterback who breaks when a defensive lineman gets within ten yards and put him behind an O line that can’t block elite pass rushers? Why did we invest around $30 million in two wide receivers? I’m seeing some mixed messages there. You tailor your offense to play off the strengths of your roster, right?

Maybe it’s just me. Man, I used to schedule my Sundays around Vikings games. Now it’s kind of blasé. I’m sure I’ll keep watching but with much less interest than ever before. If you believe what you see on social media (be careful about that), I’m starting to wonder if the NFL might be looking for some new fans within 5 to 10 years?

Things like this are why I’m more interested in watching college sports than a professional event. They’re still kids out there having fun. The atmosphere is more upbeat as well.

Maybe I’m just mellowing in my middle age. Sports aren’t quite the be-all, end-all that they used to be. Is that normal as fans age?

At least spring training is coming up quickly.

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020

NDSU Bison playing for another football title

NDSU Bison football. What do you know? They’re in another title game. Here’s a preview of the Saturday matchup with James Madison University.

There’s a third certainty in life besides death and taxes. It’s the North Dakota State University football team making a deep run into the FCS playoffs. The NDSU Bison take on James Madison University for the FCS college football championship on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Frisco, Texas. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. Central time. The Bison (15-0) are the No. 1-ranked team in the land while James Madison (14-1) is No. 2.

These two teams have quite a history. First of all, this is a rematch of the 2017 national championship game. NDSU has won two straight and seven of the last eight national championship games. JMU took the 2016 national title game after they beat the Bison in the national semifinals. James Madison is making its third appearance in the title game in the last four years.

NSDU football beat writer Jeff Kolpack (@FGOSPORTSWRITER) spoke to Travis Aune on Minnesota Sports Weekly and was refreshingly honest when asked if he thought heading into the season that the Bison would make yet another appearance in the title game.

“To give you a one-word answer, it’s ‘no,’” he said with a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting it because I thought we had too many young players. It’s tough to depend on a freshman quarterback (Trey Lance of Marshall, MN) to get you back to Frisco (Texas).

Another year, same result

“That being said, there’s something about this program that just keeps reinventing itself,” he added. “One of the advantages this program has is they don’t have a lot of players leaving every year. Guys sometimes stick around for 2-3 years before they even get a shot at seeing the field. I think that’s a lot of dedication to a program that you don’t see as much of anymore.”

He says a lot of today’s kids that aren’t playing as freshmen will often bail on their program and look for opportunities elsewhere. It’s the “instant gratification” part of today’s sports and the Bison program has been able to avoid a lot of that.

Obviously, the Bison aren’t winning as much as they have without talent. “They have a lot of that,” he said. “They have a lot of support, resources, and money, as well as a university president (Dean. L Bresciani) who’s on board with the program’s success. You need all those things. Did I expect this? No. Am I surprised they’re here again? No.”

Freshman QB

Despite being a redshirt freshman, Marshall native Trey Lance has shown the ability to be an equally effective passer and runner since taking over under center for the Bison. For a young player, his accuracy is remarkable. He’s thrown for 28 touchdowns and doesn’t have a single interception this season.

“He’s 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, and is a powerful runner,” Kolpack said. “His development is coming along well. He recognizes what defenses are trying to do and gets to his check-down points. He’s much farther along mentally than anyone thought he’d be at this point. It’s sometimes hard to remember that he’s just a freshman when he’s out there.”

Matt Entz took over as head coach after Chris Kleiman left for Kansas State University after last season. Kolpack said the first year under Entz “couldn’t have gone any better.” He was the defensive coordinator under former Bison coaches Kleiman and Craig Bohl.

Dominance

The Bison have been on a remarkable run of winning football. Minnesota Sports Weekly host Travis Aune pointed out that NDSU beats most of its opponents by considerable margins. Why don’t the Bison schedule better opponents? Kolpack’s answer was a simple one; “No one will play them.” He said it might be hard to truly appreciate just how good the program has been over many years.

“It’s one of the most dominant college football programs in history,” he said. “If they win on Saturday, they may win three more. If that’s the case, the NDSU Bison program becomes the most dominant one in college football history.

“However, when you’re watching it before your eyes, it may be hard to recognize that,” Kolpack added. “It’s hard to live in the moment of a history book because technically the book hasn’t been written yet. It’ll be written 10-20 years down the road. You write it after the fact.”

This Saturday

Looking ahead to the title game on Saturday, Kolpack said the defenses could play a major role in the outcome. James Madison is No. 1 in the country in terms of yards allowed on the ground, with their opponents averaging a mere 61 yards per game and 2.2 yards per rush.

“The recent run of NDSU Bison success has been built on good defense,” he said. “They’re a good defensive team again this year. I think the first team to 20 is going to win this game. The teams will open with some basic football early on and get a feel for what each of them is doing.

“Two heavyweights like this are going to come out like boxers,” Kolpack said. “They’re not going to try for the knockout early. I’m seeing a close, low-scoring game.”

You can find the whole interview with Jeff Kolpack as part of Minnesota Sports Weekly right here.

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020

College football recruiting for a second time

College football recruiting is quite a process, both for players and coaching staffs. A Spring Grove, Minnesota, high school standout had played his first year of college ball for the University of Minnesota-Crookston and very unexpectedly found himself going through the process a second time. Here’s what it looked like when the news first broke late last year.

Spring Grove native Alex Folz enjoyed a successful first season of college football at the University of Minnesota-Crookston in 2019. After getting significant playing time as a freshman for the NCAA Division 2 level Golden Eagles, Folz was into offseason workouts and studies when he got the news that no college athlete expects. He wouldn’t be playing football for Crookston again.

The school had decided to ax its football program due to “budget concerns.” Folz was left without a team to play for, decided to open himself up to the college football recruiting process once again, and found a new team to play for. This time around, it’s going to be a much-bigger road trip from Spring Grove to his new home. The Spring Grove high school standout is now a member of the Eastern New Mexico State University Greyhounds football team. Why decide to join the team in Portales, New Mexico?

“The first few days of looking for colleges generated some interest from NAIA schools, NCAA Division 3 schools, but nothing that big,” Folz recalled. “I had a couple of offers from NCAA Division 2 schools in southern states like West Virginia. I sent some film out to Eastern New Mexico and by the fourth day of my college football recruiting process, the head coach (Kelley Lee) sent me an email saying he loved my film and thought I’d be a good fit there.

Spring Grove native Alex Folz, shown here as a freshman playing for the University of Minnesota-Crookston, found himself going through college football recruiting for a second time after Crookston decided to cut it’s football program after the 2019 season. (Contributed photo)

“Coach said they might even have opportunities for me to do more things than just offense, which I loved doing at Spring Grove and did at Crookston,” he added. “The recruiting coordinator called to talk to me, and they eventually gave me a pretty nice scholarship.”

He began to look into the team and program, including their facilities and liked what he saw. Folz said the multiple coaches he talked to “seemed nice.” Appropriately enough for the social media age, Folz followed several of the Greyhounds’ players on Twitter, who all seemed to enjoy what they were doing down in New Mexico.

“I thought to myself ‘is this what I really want?’,” he recalled with a laugh. “Minnesota is great, and I have family here, but it’s got to be nice to live in warmer weather and get out to explore the U.S. a little bit.”

Folz admits that the whole “re-recruiting” process ended a little quicker than he thought it would.

The highly decorated high school player had a successful first year with the Crookston program, more so on a personal level than in terms of team success (0-11). He felt the team had something building as a member of a large recruiting class for the Northern Sun Conference school. The team was doing offseason conditioning work when they got notified of an “emergency team meeting” out of the blue.

“I’d just finished class and was sitting with one of my roommates when he got a phone call saying a friend had heard the football team was getting cut,” Folz said. “The friend on the phone knew someone at St. Cloud State that had a meeting at the same time and their program also got cut. We initially thought it was just rumors and nothing like that would happen.”

However, after scrolling through social media reports and other online articles, Folz and his teammates slowly started to think there might well be bad news coming. A lot of his teammates had no idea what they were going to do if it was true because this was the only place they could play while going to school.

“Our coaches came into the meeting room and sat at the back, which is not something they normally do,” he recalled. “The Chancellor (Mary Holz-Clause) stepped up to the microphone and told us she was sorry we had to find out the way we did because they wanted to news to come straight from the administration. She also said, ‘as of today, we’re cutting the football program.’

“You could see it in the faces of every guy in the room,” Folz added. “The look in their eyes said, ‘are you kidding me?’”

What Folz didn’t appreciate was the fact that Holz-Clause told the team they’ve been trying to cut the football team for the previous 18 months. “That’s what got me,” he said emphatically. “Our coaches found out just ten minutes before she told us (on Dec. 10). Why couldn’t they have told us as soon as the season ended (Nov. 16)?”

That meant more than 60 players had to find new colleges by spring. That’s when coaches typically want their new players enrolled so they can get to know the team and practice in the spring. That left them less than a month to find a new home.

And, the school wasn’t prepared to offer a lot of extra help to the students. Folz said athletes who had questions could ask and they’d try to assist them. However, the former Golden Eagle football players were on their own in the college football recruiting process.

From a personal perspective, Folz was disappointed because he had a successful freshman season.

Spring Grove, Minnesota, native Alex Folz is shown here carrying the ball for the University of Minnesota-Crookston football team. Crookston decided to cut its program after the 2019 season, forcing Folz to undergo college football recruiting a second time. (Contributed photo)

“I started the season playing on all four of the special teams’ units,” he said. “I was also a running back. As the season went on, I took over the punting job, returned kicks, and was on the punt return and kickoff teams. Halfway through the season, I moved from running back to slot receiver just because their numbers were low at the position.”

The former high school quarterback also took snaps as the backup quarterback in practice, just in case of an emergency.

The biggest adjustment to college sports came in the classroom. He said Friday and Saturday were his busiest days for football. “That meant you couldn’t be as much of a typical college kid the rest of the week,” he said. “You really have to take your time to study and get your homework done. When all that’s done, you still have to pay attention to the game of football. It’s a big time-balancing exercise.”

Folz is heading out for New Mexico on Jan. 8, will move into his apartment, and then have a couple of days to adjust to the new surroundings. School starts on Jan. 13. Folz is leaving familiar surroundings and heading almost 1,150 miles from home. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks about the distance?

“I’m really excited,” he said after some thought. “I’ve always wanted to get out and see the country. The only thing I’m nervous about is meeting new teammates. We had a close brotherhood at Crookston. I felt as though I could have gone to any of the players or coaches with anything. I’m hoping all those guys down there will be the same way and I’m sure they will.

“We all just want to play football,” he said with a laugh.

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019

Fillmore Central football upgrade: Sports Podcast

Here’s the latest Chad Smith Media podcast with the full interview from Mensink. It’s downloadable. Just click on the three buttons stacked on the right side and hit download.

Fillmore Central football fans will find things look a lot different when they head out to the home field in Harmony for the season opener on Friday, August 30^th, against United South Central. After a couple of years of plans and discussions, as well as several months of hard work, the football facility upgrades all but completed. Falcons’ head coach (and Athletic Director) Chris Mensink said the upgrade idea got started because of very little room on the home sideline.

Falcons didn’t have enough room

“Our home sideline was right on a hillside,” he said, “which meant there were some safety issues. We talked initially about sliding the field away from the hill but were limited because we host junior high baseball on that same field. The question was how do we do that slide things over?

“We ended up moving the baseball field up behind the community center where we practice football,” he said. “The school owns all that practice area up there. Once we found a new place to put the baseball field, that kickstarted the process of putting a football-only facility together.”

He said sliding the field to give the team more room on the sideline, as well as adding in a 500-seat grandstand, eventually led to a larger-scale renovation process. Eventually, the project included new lights, crowning the field, and putting in a new watering system. “We’re now building a structure to hold the concession stand, a ticket area, some new bathrooms, and a locker room for the referees,” he said.

Mensink said the Falcons the kids were “basically standing on a hillside and couldn’t have any benches on their sideline.” Back when the district built the press box, they added a bunch of fill to the area so the fans could see over the top of the kids standing on the sideline.

Safety concerns

“That made the sideline really tight to the hill,” Mensink said. “If we had a player get injured, he wouldn’t be able to sit on a bench along the sideline because of that hill. If they tried to sit on a table so the trainer could look them over, the tables would tip over.

“Also, the area where the old concession stand sat was fenced,” he added. “That fence was a little tight to the back corner of the end zone. If a player went too far out of the back of the end zone, they were running into that fence and we don’t want kids getting hurt.”

Workers lay the foundations for the new facilities at the Fillmore Central football field. (Contributed photo)

When a football field doesn’t have a crown on it, that’s when it can get flooded by heavy rainfall. “The soil contained a lot of clay, which made it really hard,” Mensink said. “We were having a hard time keeping grass on it, so the surface wasn’t what it should be. When we took a hard look at the field, we decided to do this right and crown the field.”

Crowning the field

For those who don’t know, crowning a football field is a lot of work. Workers start the project by removing the topsoil from the field. “They brought in a sandy mixture of soil as soon as we were done playing last fall,” Mensink recalled. “You use that sandy soil to build the crown. After that, workers brought in eight inches of black dirt and piled it on top of the sandier soil last spring. They re-graded everything, slid it over to where it needed to be, and that’s when we put the sod down.”

School officials even talked about flipping the field, so it ran north and south instead of east and west. Mensink said that would have involved a lot of extra work, including moving the crow’s next.

Thanks to everyone who helped

He said they wouldn’t be able to make improvements of this magnitude without the support of the administration. “The district has been putting some money away in their building fund,” Mensink said. “The fund balance helped us make a lot of improvements at the football field and helps with ongoing projects at the school building.”

Falcon fans will be sitting on the other sideline this fall. Mensink said officials put in a 500-foot grandstand that will be “nice and close to the action,” and everyone will have a great view of the game. He said the field has a “nice crown on it” and looks “really nice.”

Mensink thanks everyone who helped out. He says the list of everyone who helped with the project is gigantic. “We put sod down with a great deal of volunteer help,” Mensink recalled. “We put down five semi loads of sod in a day, which was an amazing cost-saving for our district.

New seating at the Fillmore Central football field means the fans get a great view of the games. (Contributed Photo)

“Scheevel and Sons Construction handled all of the gradings on this project,” he said. “Stateline Cement did all the cement work for areas underneath the bleachers, for the sidewalks, and the concession areas. Morem’s Electric handled all the electrical work. VIS Plumbing handled all the plumbing work at the facility.”

Fillmore Central fans will get to enjoy the new facility right away as three of the first four games of the fall season will be on the Falcons’ home field.