Sprint football touches down in Indiana
It's Christmas just about every day this summer for Thomas Henderson.
The Bloomington South grad, head sports performance coach at Saint Mary of the Woods College just outside West Terre Haute, and now an assistant football coach, heads to the mailroom every day to see what Santa, er, the delivery trucks have dropped off.
Video cameras, coaches head sets, uniforms and shoulder pads. Towels, cones, blocking sleds. It's all unwrapped and unboxed like a kid on Christmas morning as each piece of the school's new sprint football program comes together. Given recent supply chain issues, there's a big sigh of relief every time a critical item shows up, like say the helmets that arrived last week.
"We're definitely figuring it out. It's one of the greatest challenges in athletics to start from the ground up," Henderson said. "But I loved the idea of that challenge from Day 1. We've got our foot on the gas. It's just the biggest challenge you can do as a football coach."
Hired as head coach of the program, that will kick off its inaugural season this fall, is former Sullivan High School head coach Blaine Powell. Besides Henderson, there's another local on his staff in Owen Valley grad Daniel Beckett, a grad assistant who jumped on board to coach while he's working on his master's degree.
"For me, No. 1 it's a great college," Powell said. "It's everything you'd want. The support we get from the administration and everyone at the school has just been great.
"You don't get a chance to start your own program from the ground up. Whenever I got here, it's been something where there was a chair and a phone in my office on the first day. But it's a challenge and you always want to take advantage of something like that. You can bring in your own culture and your own kids. I was at a point in my career I could not pass this up."
What is sprint football?
Sprint football is just like regular 11-man football, only there's a weight limit of 178 pounds, putting a premium on speed and technique. Saint Mary of the Woods will begin play in the Midwest Sprint Football League this fall, with Oakland City joining them in the near future, having just announced its new program earlier in the month.
It was a sport mostly confined to the East Coast, but six midwestern schools, Bellarmine (Ky.), Calumet College of St. Joseph (Indiana), Fontbonne (Missouri), Midway (Ky.) and Quincy (Ill.) joined the Pomeroys in forming the MSFL. It's everyone's first year of competition, so they'll all be on the same footing.
They'll play a six-game schedule with the winner meeting the winner of the eastern based Collegiate Sprint Football League in a bowl game at Canton, Ohio. St. Mary of the Wood will open with St. Joseph on Sept. 17 and will play its home games this season at West Vigo High School until its new multipurpose stadium opens.
"I've watched some games on YouTube," Powell said. "The main thing I see is that you've got to be fundamentally sound. The speed of the game and technique-wise, you're forced to be sound.
"It is faster. Things happen faster. Run, pass whatever, it looks faster. That's the difference I see. Everybody is basically the same size, so it's how well you teach fundamentals and technique to your guys."
SMWC is closing in on 50 players for its first season and is signing them from all over the country, with 19 from Indiana and 10 coming up from Texas. With more time, Powell and his staff hope to hit the area harder next year when they'll be expanding the roster.
"We were able to get some guys that played line," Powell said. "But for the most part, other than quarterback, after that, you're looking for versatility and athleticism. That's the main thing to fit the offense and defense."
Weighty issue for Henderson
Sprint football's weight limit brings a wrestling like dimension to the sport and it makes Henderson one of the most important members of the Pomeroys coaching staff.
Henderson came to Saint Mary of the Woods in 2018 after graduating from IU, offered an internship with a chance to get a master's degree. He walked into a program with a weightroom that had limited equipment and didn't have any barbells over 50 pounds. Few, if any, athletes were using any of it. It had been an all-women's school and did not admit male undergrads until 2015 and since has added men's sports to its athletic department.
So Henderson's first job was a remake of the weightroom along building a consistent strength and condition program for each sport. And with all the new building going on with athletic facilities, he might even find himself installing insulation as he was last week.
His role is critical in that he must work with players who need weight management and weight control to remain eligible to play. A player can weigh as much as 183, but must have 5% body fat or less. Improving the players' speed and agility is also a part of of the job.
"About 60 to 70 percent of them I'll train like a typical football player," Henderson said. "They have room to grow. About four or five coming in, we recruited them in over the weight limit and another five or so are about 175.
"So we tell them as we're recruiting them that for four years, you have to maintain that weight but we still want them to shed fat and build muscle in order to play and the guys seem receptive to that."
Henderson will also coach the defensive backs and be the special teams coordinator.
"He was on staff when I got here so he was very familiar with all the people and processes here," Powell said. "He's been a huge asset to me personally and to the program because of his knowledge at the school, how to get things done.
"He's also a huge asset in how he views and wants to develop these kids. Some of them we'll be able to pack on weight. Others he'll have to maintain it and I trust Thomas knows what he's doing."
Burkett back in school
Burkett is the youngest member of the staff, having graduated from Indiana State in May with a degree in education. He originally had designs on becoming an athletic director, even interning with OV AD Brad Greene his senior year. Then he changed his mind and aimed at becoming an elementary teacher and coach.
The former OV quarterback and track standout had been helping out with the Patriots track and football programs and the OV middle school football team. When Powell came to town to sign receiver Abbott Church, he had found out Burkett was interested in getting a master's degree and noted SMWC had a good one in leadership development. And that they could use a hand coaching football.
"The big thing I tell everyone is that I saw the recruiting process as a player," Burkett said. "And I never thought I'd be on the other end, calling up and offering opportunities to play college football."
He had seen a rebuild, when Rob Gibson had come in to succeed Duane Potts as head coach at OV. But now, it was really from the ground up.
"Daniel was a really big get for us," Powell said. "He's got good experience coaching all levels. He's a good football guy, he's young and energetic and takes his job seriously. Anything you ask him to do he's thorough about it.
"He has a great demeanor with kids. I liked him as a player when I coached against Owen Valley. I told him this was a good stepping stone, a chance to get his feet wet at the college level and move into a bigger role, plus he'll get a chance to get his master's at St. Mary of the Woods."
Burkett's duties are to coach receivers and dig up 2023 recruits in central Indiana and states on the East Coast.
"(We're looking for) little guys who play like they're bigger," Burkett said.
A chance to play
Workers are busy getting SWMC's practice field ready to go while SMWC's new turf stadium, which will be used by the soccer teams and have a track around it, is right around the corner.
It's coming, as surely as the leaves will turn colors in the fall.
"I think it's another opportunity, another avenue for kids to continue to play the sport they love," Powell said. "We've seen that with a lot of the kids we're recruiting now. Things like the transfer portal have really given us a great opportunity to get some good, quality kids who to continue to play."
Powell plans to have a roster of around 80-90, big enough to cover the bases while giving everyone a chance to see the field at some point. He thinks the college is an easy sell, with its setting, a good selection of majors and small classes. It's also a chance to help get a program off the ground, to be a pioneer of sorts.
"I think more opportunities to continue to play football is a great thing in my eyes," Bloomington North coach Scott Bless said. "It might give some opportunities to some guys who didn't think they could play at the next level.
"What makes high school football great is that in most programs, you're relying on guys who don't fit the mold. So this just might provide the perfect opportunity for undersized linemen or kids who are tough as nails. It'll be interesting to see how the rosters play out."
Players from smaller schools in southern Indiana now have two more options to keep their athletic careers alive and do it relatively close to home.
"Any school, but especially 1A, 2A, even 3A in the Wabash Valley, we tend to think we get overlooked because we don't have the numbers," Eastern Greene coach Travis Wray said. "We have 178-pound linemen because sometimes we're playing with that, so it kinds of feeds into what we're doing on a daily basis.
"Any school, but especially 1A, 2A, even 3A in the Wabash Valley, we tend to think we get overlooked because we don't have the numbers," Eastern Greene coach Travis Wray said. "We have 178-pound linemen because sometimes we're playing with that, so it kinds of feeds into what we're doing on a daily basis.
"It's exciting for us but we'll have to coach the kids up on what it means, especially for the kids who have an asperation to play at the next level. It's an opportunity to keep on playing and it's legit football. You're getting coached and getting an education at the same time."
Sure, SWMC and Oakland City will be battling other NCAA Division III and NAIA schools for prized prospects, but reaching out to those players who may have thought they had little chance to make it at the next level is going to make it Christmas anytime of the year for many high school athletes.
"When people ask my favorite part," Burkett said, "it's being able to offer those guys who are really good football players, just not big enough, but know they deserve a chance to live out their dream to play college football. You can hear the excitement coming through the phone."
Undersized maybe, but no longer undervalued.
"I have this new avenue now that allows me to push that," Wray said. "I'm excited for it in regards that I can call up Blaine and say, 'I've got someone who can fit you well.'"
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Sprint football touches down in Indiana
