School of Mines, BHSU gear up for gridiron season

By Jeff Budlong, Journal staff | Wednesday, August 06, 2008

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RAPID CITY — With the calendar now turned to August it won’t be long before area college football players take to the field for their first taste of two-a-days this season.

South Dakota School of Mines head coach Dan Kratzer will welcome the largest number of players he has had in his four years leading the Hardrockers when they open up camp Saturday.

“We are looking to have about 70 players report this year which is a good squad,” Kratzer said. “The last two seasons have been decent recruiting years where we have brought in good numbers, and this year we have 23 freshmen that will be coming in.

“When I came here four years ago there were 26 players so we have built it up, but we still don’t have the depth when you’re competing against teams that have anywhere from 85 to 125 football players.”

SDSM&T is looking to improve on last year’s record of 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the Dakota Athletic Conference. The conference win was its first in three seasons.

While the ’Rockers are looking to fight their way up in the competitive DAC, the Black Hills State University program is hoping it ends this season with what it has the last two — a conference title.

“It is a realistic goal and we have an expectation that has been with us since last year’s playoff loss to Carroll,” said Yellow Jackets head coach John Scott. “We have to get past the first round of the playoffs, but you also have to take care of things in the proper order.”

BHSU, which went 7-4 last season, has been bounced from the playoffs in the first round each of the past two years, but the Yellow Jackets entered the 2008 preseason NAIA Football Top 25 poll ranked 10th in the nation.

The Yellow Jackets begin their camp Aug. 13 when freshmen report to Spearfish while the veterans will be back on campus Aug. 15. In all, Scott is expecting 90 players to take part in practices for BHSU.

Coach Scott said those first two days for the freshmen are important especially this year with 40 of the 90 players joining the program for the first time, and 20 of those are walk-ons.

“It allows us to ease the freshmen in because a majority of them are apprehensive, and we also bring in on leadership council made up of eight junior and senior players,” Scott said. “It gets them used to the drills but it also helps them get used to campus life as well.”

The Yellow Jackets return a total of 38 letterwinners including seven returning offensive starters and six on the defensive side of the ball.

Both teams will run practices twice a day — once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or evening — for the first couple of weeks of camp. There are also meetings, weightlifting sessions and treatment times involved.

Part of the reason for optimism for both teams is the dedication the players have shown during the offseason allowing them to come into camp in better shape and progress faster as they gear up for the first game of the year.

“I always have a good feeling with winter drills and spring ball because you spend so much time with them, but after three months of not seeing them you kind of worry,” Scott said. “But we have veterans on this team that know what it takes. The majority come back at the level we sent them off at or better.”

For Kratzer, returning experience is something he has not had a lot of during his time as head coach.

“This is the first year we have a group of returners that have a full year of experience together,” he said. “We are only going to have 11 or 12 seniors on the team, but it is the most we have had since I have been here.”

Mines opens up its season at home Aug. 30 against Haskell University, while BHSU travels to face Southwest Minnesota State University on Sept. 6.