By Cassie Kickert
A new season. New faces. But Saturday’s first Pioneers
tryout of 2014 was a chance to reunite with some former and returning Pioneers as
well.
One former and soon-to-be new Pioneer with championship
experience is receiver/defensive back Donte Pettis. Pettis was a part of the
2009 National Championship team, playing for the Pioneers through 2010.
He moved to Texas in 2011 to experience something new. He
missed Minnesota, though, so last March he moved back to Zimmerman, MN. He
played last season with the Chippewa Valley Predators, earning accolades on
both sides of the ball.
Originally from Milwaukee, Wis., Pettis was a talented
college athlete as well. He played football, basketball and track for the North
Dakota State Bison f
A valuable asset on offense and defense, the Pioneers will
primarily utilize him at receiver. Pettis says he’s played defense for so long
that he wants to focus on offense this season.
“I want to concentrate, give 100 percent to one position,”
he said.
Another player who’s wearing the Pioneers’ black and cardinal
again this season is the versatile Isaac Odim – a former NEFL Player of the
Year and a national champion with the Pioneers in 2012. Although running back
Riza Mahmoud filled Odim’s shoes quite well as the team’s starting running back
last season -- winning league Offensive Player of the Year -- Odim was missed in the year he was gone. He adds an undeniable
dynamic element to the Pioneers’ running game this season. Pioneers coaches are absolutely ecstatic about having these two dynamic, talented, speedy rushers in the same backfield.
While he was gone, Odim attended graduate school at Duke
University, earning a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. He graduated
in December and now works for Boston Scientific in the Twin Cities.
Pioneers linebacker John Robinson, who suffered a torn
pectoral muscle late last season, was also at Saturday’s tryout. In fact, he
got clearance to start training on his shoulder just this past week.
He says the Pioneers are “back where we want to be.”
From the abundance of new talent including receiver/tight
end Damien Lolar, who played for the Minnesota Sting last season and returning
players like Robinson and Lionel Lamarre on defense and Riza Mahmoud and Delane
Woods on offense, it appears he is right. The Pioneers are focusing on a single
goal, according to Robinson: A third National Championship.
The Pioneers will continue working toward that goal next
Saturday at their second tryout at Bethel University starting at 1pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment