Jim Souhan: Floridians give St. Olaf football a sunny outlook

NORTHFIELD, MINN. - St. Olaf's football resurgence has been aided by a bunch of guys who don't know Sven from Ole; who believe Paul Bunyan was fictional and suspect lefse might be real; who think sunshine is a birthright, not a reprieve.

Saturday afternoon, two undefeated rivals will play a key MIAC game when Gustavus visits St. Olaf.

The Gusties' roster features three players from outside Minnesota -- two from Wisconsin and one from Pennsylvania. St. Olaf, the picturesque and demanding school nestled in the hills of Northfield, will counter with a roster featuring 21 players from Florida.

St. Olaf coach Chris Meidt is benefiting from his first batch of Florida-born seniors.

At 4-0, St. Olaf is three victories away from winning seven or more games in four consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.

Meidt has found players in Florida; the Floridians have found a pleasant form of culture shock in Northfield. "I didn't know what an ice scraper was," said senior center Blake Hamel, of Lake Mary, Fla.

He had to learn to drive in snow through trial and lots of error. "Blake wears a Bassmaster hat everywhere; he's got a rear-wheel drive pickup with a bass in the window," Meidt said. "The first time he drove in snow was a harrowing experience for his teammates."

Quarterback Matt Penz remembers his first practice as a freshman, seeing a tall, powerful-looking kid across the field.

"Defensive end?" Penz guessed. "Receiver," he was told, and now Horace Gant of Pensacola is one of the keys to the Oles' explosive passing attack.

"We were driving to a game in Iowa, and we saw an Amish buggy," Penz said. "Horace looked out the window and said, 'What are those -- pilgrims?' "

Hamel said he'd never seen cornfields before, not to mention snow. "A couple of years ago, we had a snowstorm, our first snowfall, in the middle of the night," said receiver Andrew Schmiesing, a Stillwater native who also plays in the Twins' system. "So a couple of the Florida guys were up at 3 a.m. on a weeknight, sledding down the hill."

In 2001, Rob McCarthy was the defensive coordinator for Pensacola, Fla., High. The next year he took the same position at St. Olaf, and Meidt, who had just taken over the Oles program after working as the offensive coordinator at Bethel, decided to take an approach unheard of in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

"When I got here, I felt we needed to do something different than everyone else was doing," Meidt said. "So I researched schools like Trinity in Texas and Wheaton in the Chicago area, and some other high-end academic schools who've been really successful on the football field.

"What I found in each of their cases -- even at Trinity, even though some of the greatest football players in the country come from Texas -- is that they had fairly national rosters. We're limited to three full-time recruiters. We said, 'We'll pick a spot and go after it."

They began in Pensacola, where they found Gant and defensive back Deontae Hutchins.

St. Olaf has rigorous academic standards, so the Oles sought players with good grades who liked the idea of playing in a competitive Division III league.

The result: They've won lots of games. Gant and Hutchins have coached Meidt's son's flag football team. And, the Florida kids say, they've had a better experience and gotten a better education than their high school teammates.

"We're a very tight group here, and my friends tell me that's not the case where they play," Gant said.

Said Hamel: "Now I understand Minnesota Nice. You're the last one at a four-way stop sign, and people wave you through. That does not happen in Florida."

The Florida connection benefits native Minnesotans, too. "Now we have some place to stay," Penz said, "when we go on spring break."

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com