Lots to cover in Let’s Play Football

by BRYAN ZOLLMAN Co-Publisher, Let’s Play Football

The first two weeks of the football season brought plenty of excitement on the field.

Unfortunately, it produced some high-tension moments on the sidelines as well.

Waseca head coach Brad Wendland collapsed on the sidelines near the end of their season-opening win over St. Peter. Wendland said he felt dizzy, took a knee and that’s the last thing he remembers about the incident.

Fortunately for Coach Wendland, the quick action of a pair of Mayo Sports Medicine athletic trainers and a nurse who rushed down from the stands helped save his life.

It goes to show how important athletic trainers are in the sport of football...or any sport for that matter. Their instincts and ability to stay calm under pressure and do the work needed to be done kept a coach, teacher, father, husband, son, brother, and friend to many alive.

Their work should be heralded and recognized. Doctors told Wendland his chances of surviving cardiac arrest were less than one percent. A true miracle he is still with us. He will take some time off from teaching and hopes to return to the sidelines soon to be with his No. 6-ranked

Bluejays in Class 3A. We hope for a speedy recovery.

Speaking of rankings, we have polled coaches to weigh in on who the best teams are in each respective class. We have received good response and have developed a new ranking system based on the coaches poll.

This is the same way we conduct rankings for high school hockey in our other publication Let’s Play Hockey. Coaches usually know and understand who the best teams are and who are the teams to beat each and every Friday night.

Is it a perfect system? No, there is no such thing as a perfect ranking system, whether it is the FBS rankings or high school football.

Our hope is to shine a light on the top teams in each class. Because there are more than 350 high school football teams, that leaves a lot of teams out of the mix. But we will cover as many teams and stories as we can, whether they are ranked or not.

In this issue we talk about those ranked teams and some strong match ups for Week 3. We are at the point of the season where the stronger teams begin to emerge. Friday nights have brought us some beautiful weather, and as the season progresses, the leaves will change and the temperatures will dip. But is there anything better than sitting in the stands under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate watching your favorite team take the field?

It is one of the rites of fall here in Minnesota.

One of those match ups is between Class 5A powers Cretin-Derham Hall and St. Thomas Academy. The Minnesota Vikings have done an outstanding job with their Prep Spotlight games. They are now in year three highlighting teams from all over the state at TCO Stadium, giving these kids such a great opportunity to play at such a great facility.

As we have seen already, there are many unpredictables every fall. Which makes the season so much fun to witness.

So grab a blanket and some hot chocolate and settle in for our second issue of the season. We hope you enjoy reading our stories and we always enjoy receiving feedback or story ideas. If you have a story idea for us, please email editor@letsplayfootballmn.com.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. And check out our slowly evolving website at www.letsplayfootballmn.com. And stay tuned for our upcoming podcast series with Tim McNiff.

Our goal is to provide coverage of football at all levels, the players who play it, the coaches who coach it, the officials who officiate it, and the parents and fans who love to watch it.

We hope you enjoy it.