It may be only one game, but the five-point win over Vermilion may signal a new era at the community college on the hill.
Ridgewater was 2-7 last year while the Ironmen of Ely won the state championship. The Warriors finished with 35 players in coach Rob Baumgarn's first year; this time with full year to recruit there were 66 boys on the bus to St. Cloud Friday.
"When we go on the road, we call it a business trip. We have an attitude," said Baumgarn.
The MCCC coaches rewarded Ridgewater with the number two spot behind Rochester in the rankings after the 24-19 win.
Baumgarn has a team stocked with young men from area, the metro and at-large rural Minnesota. There are also 14 players from out-of-state, six from Florida.
ADVERTISEMENT
Those out-of-state numbers are low compared to the 10 other school in the MCCC with football teams (Hibbing suspended football for 2007 due to problems in its program). Many of these players come from towns and cities in the southern U.S. where opportunities to play juco sports are few or don't exist at all.
In the early days, Willmar Junior College, as it was first known, had a Georgia pipeline. Players like Abe Gibbons and Clarence Williams helped make the Warriors a basketball and football powerhouse in the 1960s and '70s.
Players from out-of-state, including Georgia, were a big part of Willmar's national tournament basketball team in 1979.
Last Friday, Ridgewater hit the manufactured turf on the St. Cloud State campus like the Buckeyes invading Ann Arbor. The homage to Ohio State was intentional.
The Warriors have adopted the OSU colors and trim, down to those silver helmets with the broad band. The Warriors numbers should make them an impressive sight when they mark their home debut at Hodapp Field.
Ridgewater has one more road game -- at Mesabi Range of Virginia -- before the home debut on Sept. 8 against Itasca. They'd like to come home 2-0.
On the fly
n Ridgewater College athletic director Todd Thorstad said he and the administration have decided to drop the club soccer program for this year. Only eight players had signed up, forcing cancellation of the new team's first two matches last weekend. Thorstad said he hoped to retain coach Mark Piper and allow him a full year of recruiting to establish a club team in 2008.
ADVERTISEMENT
n Tara Thielke, an All-Area basketball player for Hancock, has enrolled at Ridgewater College and will play basketball and perhaps softball. She was enrolled at Southwest Minnesota State planning to play basketball, but decided to leave when she learned she would have to redshirt due to delays in gaining NCAA clearinghouse approval for a math course.
n Ridgewater College baseball coach Dwight Kotila's fall league has six teams with players representing 13 high schools from as far away as Bertha/Hewitt and Park Rapids. The league jumped in popularity this year with the initiation of wood bats, actually composites which last longer than hickory or ash. Each team plays a doubleheader on Saturday until the end of September at the city fields.
n Edel Fernandez, men's soccer coach, noted the team's 3-0 loss Saturday at Western Iowa was an improvement over 10-0 a year ago. Tired and injured, the team lost 8-4 on Sunday at home to Central Iowa CC, after giving up three goals in the first five minutes.
n The Willmar Cardinals competed in Saturday's football scrimmage in Litchfield. Hutchinson's first unit scored a couple of quick touchdowns, while the Willmar offense never crossed midfield in their first 20-play possession. "We had a lot of breakdowns against New London-Spicer," said Willmar coach Ken Heitzman this week. "It's fixable with practice and drills. Our problem now is convincing these players how good they can be and how good this team can be."
n Because of the overcoating project underway at the new track rimming Hodapp Field, today's freshman football game with St. Cloud Apollo will be played at the high school at 5 p.m. The sophomore game has been moved to today at 4:30 p.m. at St. Cloud Apollo High School.
