Steps of faith start a new tradition at St. Scholastica

DULUTH

Just after Larry Goodwin announced that the College of St. Scholastica would consider creating a football team, he received an e-mail from a faculty member. "Dear Larry," it said, "I can only conclude that you have simply lost your mind."

Goodwin, in his 11th year as the school's president, wasn't so sure he hadn't. The 96-year-old college, begun by Benedictine nuns to educate women, had never had a football team. In the 38 years since it began admitting men, its student body remained nearly 70 percent female. The only on-campus spot for a football practice field lay right between the monastery and the cemetery.

But the more Goodwin thought about how to guide his school toward a vigorous future, the more he envisioned it in helmets and pads. Saturday, St. Scholastica's first football team will celebrate its first home game against Crown College with its first homecoming. As the Saints players and coaches continue to win over the skeptics, one of the first -- Goodwin himself -- will be cheering the loudest.

"I initially was resistant, but the evidence supporting this was pretty compelling," said Goodwin, who added that he got so excited listening to the radio broadcast of the Saints' opener that he nearly drove off the road. "We did it because it brought us 80 men who wouldn't have considered us otherwise, and it has brought a real sense of school spirit and energy to our campus.

"Our name has been in the paper so much more in the past two weeks. We might solve nuclear fusion in a back room, but chances are if we have a winning team, we're going to get more publicity."

A year-long recruiting effort by coach Greg Carlson brought 84 players to the hilltop campus overlooking Lake Superior. The Saints lost their first two games, both on the road, but have gained fans among faculty and students who worried what football would do to their school's culture.

"I'm so proud of these young men," said Carlson, whose team includes 57 freshmen and only two starters who had played in college before. "They took a leap of faith to come here. And they knew they would be under the microscope. They have worked so hard to explain what we're building, which is a football program that will fit in with everything this school represents."

A business decision

The leaves had just begun to glow with fall's colors in the woods surrounding Gethsemane Cemetery, where the sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery take their final rest. On the other side of a small stand of trees, Carlson led his players through a practice during the week between their 36-29 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran and their 21-7 loss to Minnesota-Morris.

Carlson, who had long dreamed of starting a program, spends much of his time teaching. As the chapel bells chimed for afternoon prayers, he and his staff worked with players who are mostly new to the college game, including a few upperclassmen who had not been in pads at all for a year or two.

"It's so much fun to be able to play again," said junior running back Geoff Torzewski, who played a year at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls before transferring to St. Scholastica in 2007. "Our coaches teach more than they yell. Everyone's got a good basic knowledge of football, and it's fun to learn to play a system and how to be a team. It's really cool to be part of something like this."

The opportunity came in 2006, when school officials announced after a year of study that St. Scholastica would add football. The idea was introduced about five years ago by Brian Dalton, then the school's vice president for enrollment, as a way to draw more male students.

St. Scholastica's enrollment had been about 70 percent female and 30 percent male in the years since it began admitting men. Worse, many still assumed it was a women's college.

"Last year, I was sitting at our booth at the state fair," said Eric Berg, St. Scholastica's vice president of enrollment management. "People were coming up and asking, 'When did you start admitting men?' This is almost 40 years later. Football should help us with getting the word out that yes, we are coed."

Goodwin was among those who feared that football would be incompatible with St. Scholastica's tradition and culture. He had considered a few ideas, including adding an engineering major, to attract more men. But he also was guiding the college toward increasing overall enrollment and becoming more residential, and he hoped to enhance school spirit and alumni pride.

The more he examined the full spectrum of issues, the more football seemed to provide an answer. A task force agreed, after exhaustive research.

"This was a business decision related to enrollment," Goodwin said. "There were thousands of young men in Minnesota who, if they typed pre-law or pre-med and football into Google, we didn't even come up. If people were patient enough to listen to the arguments, it made sense."

Start-up costs tied to the program totaled more than $9 million, including enhancements made to the Burns Wellness Commons, which includes locker rooms, weight rooms and classrooms, and installing artificial turf on a practice field also used for soccer. The Saints play their home games at the University of Minnesota Duluth and local high school stadiums; there are no plans to build a campus stadium.

Initial funding came primarily from bonding and fund-raising. Goodwin estimated that new students drawn to the college by football will generate enough revenue to cover the bond payments within three to five years.

Other dividends already are being paid. "We had our largest one-year jump in enrollment this year," said Berg, who noted that 687 men are among St. Scholastica's 2,168 undergraduate students this fall. "And it's not just men. Some women are more interested in Scholastica because we have football. As divisive as the issue was, it's pretty clear it will be an asset to the college."

Fitting the culture

Several college officials said Carlson's approach has been critical to creating a program that would fit St. Scholastica's culture. He started in May 2007, more than a year before his team would begin play. During that time, Carlson laid a groundwork for his program by visiting area high school coaches, speaking with civic groups, recruiting players and immersing himself in St. Scholastica's history and tradition.

The coach took the job because he believed in the school's high academic standards and Benedictine values. He sought players who felt just as strongly as he did.

"We're one of 19 sports at this school, and we don't want to be different or special," said Carlson, head coach at Indiana's Wabash College for 18 years. "We want to build a competitive team, one the school will be proud of in every way. And we have lots of people working to build it the way the college wants it to be built."

To help ease any concerns that football would bring egomaniacs or lawbreakers to campus, Carlson invited the entire St. Scholastica community to a barbecue at the beginning of the school year.

A number of the sisters from the monastery attended, and several of them taught the players about the history of the Duluth Benedictines. Josh Pollard, a junior defensive lineman, said many students were eager to meet the team.

When the Saints played their first game in Milwaukee, they were accompanied by three buses and 105 fans, and St. Scholastica's soccer teams kept a radio on the sidelines so they could monitor the football score during their own games in Duluth that afternoon.

"People seemed to expect that with football, a new species of being would arrive on our campus," Goodwin said. "Some people who had misgivings went to the barbecue, and word spread that these seemed like pretty ordinary young men."

Before the Saints played their first game, Carlson said, he had to teach them how to warm up and how to conduct a coin flip. He now is working to refine a spread-option offense and attacking defense.

Success this season, he said, will be measured in steady improvements. This weekend's homecoming celebration will provide another yardstick. Berg said last week that about 300 alumni are expected to return to campus for activities that include a chili feed, bonfire, dance and talent show.

In the future, Goodwin said, he hopes St. Scholastica might join the MIAC. Berg and athletic director Don Olson hope football will draw more diverse students from a larger geographical area.

The players aren't thinking that far ahead. After all, they have a tradition to start.

"I don't take one day of this for granted," junior defensive lineman Travis Larson said. "I love coming to practice. I love the bus trips, sitting in the locker room, meeting new people. I feel privileged and honored to be part of this."