Spring Ball Day 2

We started spring practice on Tuesday of this week. It is so nice having the opportunity to get together with our players again - it was a long winter away. The NCAA needs to look at letting us to have more time with our young men.

This spring I am working with our OL - it's been a while since I coached the big'ns but it is going to be a great spring with these guys. The theme for our team this spring is to Improve, Compete, Encourage. It is so refreshing to hear our guys talk and continue to work on being better and achieving all they are capable of achieving.

The weather is beautiful, again, and as always, the Son & sun are shinning down "On the Hill".

All alumni are welcome to join us for practice on Tue/Thur. 4:00pm - 5:45

GO OLES!

Recharged and Reset

Well, it has been a very busy winter as my staff and I have been working hard to secure the next class of Oles. With a little over 2 weeks to go, we are at 22 recruits with about another 17 still making their decision.

At the same time we have been evaluating how we can become more modern in our recruiting efforts - that is - we are trying to answer the question, "How do we do a better job of reaching our target audience earlier in the recruiting process?" We are excited about some of the new ideas that we have and the new policies and recruiting tools we are going to be incorporating in our recruiting efforts for next years class (which Coach Stern has already started handwriting notes to a select number!)

In the next few months you can look for:
-Web video of "A Day as an Ole"
-A new updated TD Club web page & blog
-More active Twitter activity from OLEFOOTBALL

Exciting times "On the Hill"!

Make It Great!
Coach Olszewski

Seeing the trees

Saturday was a great college football game. Too many times we get caught up on the final score. I am guilty of that myself. All week I asked our team to believe and compete - to leave it all out there on the field. They did that. As disappointed as I am for our guys, I am proud of how hard they played. We gave up a couple of plays but played a great defensive game - the best against a Bethel team in years. Offensively we moved the ball but failed to convert in the red zone.

If not for the final score we could feel good about how we played. However, the reality is that the final score does matter and we need to continue to improve. We are off this week so my staff and I will spend a little more time on recruiting (Need to get some more playmakers!). The guys will get some time to heal up before we gear up for our next challenge. A road game in the MIAC!

GO OLES!

Ole Football

As disappointing as our lose last week was I often wonder if the players or the coaches have the tougher time letting go. Our guys responded well to the challenge. They know that Bethel will be a great test for them to see how to respond to the adversity of letting the Goat get away. What I saw from our team this week is a group of guys who were committed to each other and in having fun. The goals we set at the beginning of the year are still within our reach. This is a good football team and they need to believe that in order reach their potential. Look forward to seeing everybody "On The Hill" tomorrow!

GO OLES!

Ole Updates

Homecoming 2009 was a great success. The week was filled with a focus at practice that allowed me to know that our guys were serious about the game and not all the distractions that come with Homecoming. I'm proud of the way that our guys bounced back from the tough loss on the 19th by winning the Homecoming game. We did not play great in the first half but we came out after halftime and took over the game. The class of ‘69 was back in town and was honored at halftime - now that is a special group of men! The parents of the juniors spearheaded a huge post game gathering at one of the houses here in town - everybody had a great time.

This week is the battle for the Goatrophy. Our challenge will be for us to stay focused on us - and prepare with great effort, as we have all year, so that we can be the best we can be on Saturday. We'll remind the guys that this game is not more important that any we have played or will play this season; it is one more chance for us to get together - to family up - and enjoy and afternoon together.

PLU Wrap Up

What an awesome weekend we had in Washington. We left on Friday and the trip started out on the right note with smooth ticketing and boarding at the airport. The guys were having such a good time that the people on the plane with us started enjoying the trip a little more as well! Landed in Seattle and we went straight to Husky Stadium at the University of Washington for our Friday walk-thru (video of us sing the fight song on the “W” coming soon). That was a neat experience for all of us – even when the Huskies came out for practice and mistook us for Idaho (same colors) and upheld one of their own old traditions of barking at their opponents.

From there we checked in at our hotel and got settled in before supper. The Embassy Suites did an outstanding job of taking care of us – first class the whole weekend. We talk with our players all the time about making it the BIG TIME here at St. Olaf and we strive to do that for them every chance we get.

Saturday morning the made to order breakfast got the day started right; of course, when the defensive bus broke down 15 minutes from Sparks Stadium on the way to the game, it did give us an opportunity to rise above some adversity! After dropping the offense off, the offensive bus became the defensive bus and the D-Side was picked up and dropped off at the stadium (judging by the -76yd rushing they gave up, they were not too bothered by the travel delay).

The day belonged to the Oles – the offense dominated time of possession (41 minutes) and rushing yards (298) and that helped the defense hold PLU to 47 total offensive plays. Dominate team effort!

With the business portion of the trip concluded, we were all ready to have some fun in Seattle. After going out for supper we headed down to the waterfront and turned the 63 players loose on the town (the coaches, trainers, managers, parents and alumni also got out for some fun)! It was a great experience for everybody the natural beauty of Seattle combined with the social crowd (both U of Wash. & Wash. State played in town) made for a very fun evening.

I have to give a special thanks to all the parents and alumni who flew and drove to the game to show their support for Ole football. It never ceases to amaze me how devoted our parents and alumni are to this school and our football family. Their love for the experience that their sons are having or they themselves had shows me that we are doing things right and that we do it in a way that makes the alumni proud to be Oles.

Great memories were made this weekend and it was a wonderful stop along the journey. Now, it is on to the next stop and we will strive to “go 1-0” this week. As we turn to M.I.A.C. play, we know the competition will get tougher and the challenges will grow greater and our guys are excited to meet those challenges head on.

GO OLES!

Classes, PLU - Be An Ole!

Today was the first day of classes - vacation is officially over! Yesterday both sides of the ball did a lot of install for PLU so today should be much more spirit filled. The team is very focused and knows that this trip is about taking care of business first and then enjoying the time away together. Our guys never shy away from the hard work part of the game and that makes me proud as their Head Coach. Hope to see some Ole Alum who are from the Pacific Northwest at the game on Saturday.

GO OLES!