Josh Overman and Ben Vanderheyden

On any given Saturday afternoon the Johnnies entertain and create excitement on both sides of the ball.  An integral part of the Johnnie offensive attack is their passing game featuring seniors Josh Overman (3) and Ben Vanderheyden (89).

Tight end and wide-out Josh Overman hails from Albany, where the Johnnie offensive line coach Jim Mader had a successful high school coaching career, (228-64 over 24 years). ” I never played for Jim Mader.” Josh explained, “He asked me to go out for football my freshman year, but I had no plans to play football. I played basketball and golf.  Mader retired from Albany before my sophomore year when I actually did go out for football.  I didn’t get to play that year, but my junior year I played tight end and safety, and when I was a senior I played tight end and linebacker.”

Wide receiver Ben Vanderheyden went to Wayzata High School, playing receiver on two state tournament teams – winning the state championship his senior year. “Ben Dimond and I talk about the Wayzata-Minnetonka state championship game when I was a junior.  Ben played for Minnetonka and they won that year (2004).  My senior year we beat Cretin-Derham Hall 28-24 for the championship.  Some say it was the greatest high school game ever played.”

Vandy #83 in the 2005 title game

Why St. Johns?  “I visited some DII schools, Winona, North Dakota, and UMD”, recalled Ben, “The people at St. Johns were so welcoming and hospitable, I just fell in love with the place.  And game day at St. Johns?  There is no comparison”. Overman had a similar experience.  ” I visited DII schools also, but I thought there was no point in working that hard.  Besides, it is every kids dream from Albany and other schools in the area to play for St. Johns.  I came here hoping to play receiver, but I found out I was too slow and couldn’t run routes, so I went back to tight end.”  Vandy replied, “What does that say about me?, we have the same 40 time.”  “Well, its the routes, then”, quipped Overman.

When asked about the difference between high school football and the college game, Ben quickly answered, “Here, the coaches rely on you much more.  You’re expected to give feedback on what you are seeing on the field, and be ready to answer questions the coaches may have regarding the defense.”  Overman added that he is “..having more fun than high school.  I mean, I enjoyed the experience, but I don’t remember it as being fun.  Now, I realize what a big deal it is to play for John, and I am having a great time.”

Mention John Gagliardi and both of these fellows light up. “John is an icon.” says Overman. ” He commands so much respect. He is Johnnie Football. He sees stuff no one else sees.  John watches tons of film and has a big role in how we approach an opponent.”  It is the lighter side of the famous coach that gets Josh animated. “He watches so much film, and he doesn’t miss anything. I remember one time he came up to me, and says ‘hi, how’s it going?’, I said ‘..fine, John.’, and he looked at me and said, ‘then why the hell did you miss that block on that D Back?.’”

“John recognizes when you are going to make a mistake.” Offered Vandy, “he is very observant, and has a full picture in his head of what is going on.”

Being a Johnnie starter can come with a little fame attached. Josh tells of a recent encounter: “I am talking to some random kid, and we start talking about football, and Vandy’s name came up. I told him that I knew Vandy and this kid says, ‘You know Vandy, really?. you know Vandy?’ Everybody thinks he is such a big deal. Nobody knows who the hell I am.”

There is an obvious difference in the offense of this year compared to last year. “Many times it was 3 and out last year, now we are having long drives, running and passing the ball”, said Vandy.  “We are much more confident and Joe (Boyle) has a great command of the schemes.  He knows what and when to call, whether to go left or right.  He pretty much calls the plays.  Sometimes he will see something, and just tell me what direction to run and he will throw the ball downfield.”  Overman sees a much more aggressive team this year.  “The offense and defense are just hitting harder.  Last year, we just didn’t seem to hit very hard, this year we are challenging people and hitting much harder.  When you hit somebody, things happen.”

Overman scores at Concordia

With the obvious improvement of the offense this year, and the ever-present stingy defense, the success of both efforts has resulted in a much greater sense of team unity. “I remember late in the St. Thomas game, we were going on the field and needed to score. Stanton came up to me and said, ‘believe it, we are gong to win.’ When the defense has faith in you, that really helps.”

Watching fine young men like Josh and Ben, we can enjoy Saturday afternoons with confidence in the future. Their parents, coaches and school can be very proud of these boys, and I appreciate what they deliver to us each week.

Yea, I know Vandy…and Josh.

Enjoy!

Phil (far left) and Keith enjoying some of the scenery earlier this season in Gainesville, FL.

TDT: I’ve been reading your site for most of the Fall and it really is an unbelieveable trip.  Could you introduce yourselves and give some background on the details of what you guys are doing this college football season?

Arnold Bros (AB): We both went to Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul and played football, hockey, and baseball there. Phil played for parts of two seasons at Wisconsin as a walk-on under Barry Alvarez, and I (Keith) played baseball for two season at Notre Dame. Most of your readers probably understand how college football, at least D-I college football isn’t the biggest deal in Minnesota, but going to ND and Wisco got us pretty deep into the game. I’ve spent almost four years living in Los Angeles and working as a writer there, and live down the street from Bruce Feldman, a college football writer for ESPN. The idea for this trip hatched on my roof top deck over a couple cold ones, as I tried to tell Bruce how great it would be if ESPN GameDay did more features of what it was like at the game, as opposed to about the game.  I sat on the idea for a couple months and talked Phil into it after he graduated last May, right before he was going to take a job in Chicago. Basically, we rented a car, picked some games, and started driving the last weekend of August. We’ve been going ever since. 

TDT: What college towns have you visited so far?  What is ahead on the trip/schedule?  How do you decide which game to attend each week?

AB: We’ve been to Gainesville, USC, Arizona State, Georgia, Wisconsin, The Red River Shootout, Austin, Morgantown, Columbus, Lawrence, Kansas, and right now I’m writing you from about a mile from Autzen stadium in Oregon. (You can see our map at www.roadtogameday.com/journey) We’re going to take off tomorrow to make the short 1,500 mile drive to Colorado for the Oklahoma State-Colorado game, and then head down to Norman for the showdown between Texas Tech and the Sooners, before seeing Notre Dame probably get waxed by USC. At the beginning of the season we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go each week, but we pretty much threw the schedule out the window when teams started getting knocked off. Some places, like Autzen, we always wanted to see, others, we just wanted to be at a big game. I’m hoping we get to storm the field with the students just once this year, but we’re running out of chances.

TDT: How many miles have you put on your vehicle so far?  What are you driving on the trip?  Do you have sponsors?

AB: We’ve put about 15,000 miles so far on the car we’re driving, which is a rented Saturn Vue from our friend who runs an Avis Rent-A-Car. (If anyone is ever in Scottsdale, rent your car from the DoubleTree Hotel, tell them Road to Game Day sent you, and they’ll give you a great deal.) As for sponsors, we had a couple near misses with big national companies like Toyota and AllState, but they didn’t quite know what to think of guys like us, with a website that had nothing on it. We’ve got a few investors who’ve given us some seed money that’s gotten us through the season without going broke, and hopefully we can reward them when the site starts to really take off. We’ve also reached a deal with SportingNews.com where we write twice a week about our adventures, and that’s been great for bringing in new readers.

TDT: What kind of accomodations are “the norm”?  Are you guys eating fast food along the interstates of America or getting some decent grub at the advice of some of the locals?

AB: We eat fast food almost every day. It’s getting disgusting, but we do it. That said, when we get to a town for a weekend, we always ask around to see what the best place is in every place. We’ve had a lot of great grub in different places, but we definitely had a pretty full Monopoly board after  a few weeks of McDonalds. Too bad all we got out of it was a few free McFlurries. As for lodging, we usually just throw the city onto Hotwire or Expedia, and find something decent for under a hundred bucks. We stayed in a really sketchy place in El Paso at the beginning of the season, where we could’ve probably thrown a rock into Juarez, Mexico, and decided we had too many nice computers and a HD video camera to risk it.

TDT: How are you getting tickets to the games each week?  Scalping?  Any interesting ticket buying stories/scams?

AB: We’ve been scrounging for tickets every way possible. We’ve gotten the scalpers ticket market down pretty good now, but we had a bad start. We bought tickets in Georgia for what we thought was the ‘Bama game, but were really the Central Michigan game. Luckily no one came for the seats. Bought tickets for the Penn State-Ohio State game on eBay. Had some guy smuggle us into the stadium in Texas, when they played Mizzou where we thought he was going to hand us end zone tickets and he just walked us through the gate where he knew the usher. We’ve paid as much as $360 for a pair (Columbus) and as little as $30 (Kansas). A good rule of thumb: If people are selling, never buy them more than 10 minutes before kickoff, and always make sure they’re together… and for the right game.

TDT: What kind of media exposure have you received?  How many hits are you fellas getting on your website/blog each week?

AB: We’re doing okay for media exposure. We’ve been mentioned by Bruce Feldman at his blog, and Pat Forde plans on doing something on us in the Forde Yard Dash. One of our columns at SportingNews has become the most commented on story in the history of TheSportingBlog, which got us in some hot water with West Virginia fans. As a two man team, we really haven’t capitalized enough on advertising, and neither one of us knows anything about the internet world. That said, our videos are pretty popular, and our most popular one has had a little over 13,000 views on YouTube, and we’re getting almost 500 visitors a day. 

TDT: You guys are living most college football fans dreams.  Many people fantasize about quitting their jobs and traveling the country to watch the “Game of the Week”.  What made you guys take the leap of faith, so to speak, and actually follow through with it?

AB: I quit a good job in Minnesota to chase the writing dream in Los Angeles. It was horribly frightening, and always embarrassing having to explain to family and friends that you were “that guy” who was moving to Hollywood. I was only trying to be a writer, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if I wanted to be an actor. I had some good success as a screenwriter (with nothing making it to the screen yet), but was stuck in complacency at a job that sounded much better than it was. It was comfortable, but mind-numbing. I remembered why I moved in the first place, and with Phil just graduating, it was the last chance to do this before we both had something too good to quit. Hopefully the book I write about this, and the website helps both of us in the future with what we eventually want to do, whether that’s college football related or not. Either way, I’m proud that we had the guts to actually do it… and we’ll both be ready for a break when the season is over.

TDT: What have you guys learn so far on the trip that you maybe didn’t expect or has been a surprise to you?

AB: Texas is a horrible state to drive through. Southerners really are hospitable. Girls from Arizona State get a lot of boob jobs. Chick-Fil-A is really as good as advertised. 

TDT: What are you doing during the week (besides driving to the next game) to stay busy?

AB: We brought an XBox 360 along with us to play, and Phil has been absolutely dominating football, and hockey, while I’ve been getting the better of it lately in Tiger Woods golf. Other than that, I really thought we’d have way more free time that we have. We’ve been listening to a lot of books on tapes in the car, and have polished through some good ones lately, in addition to a lot of good reading. Best football book of the year: Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman.

TDT: Any fisticuffs or vehement disagreements with the various drunken fans along the way or between the two of you since you are spending an ungodly amount of time together?

AB: After our West Virginia column we got a lot of mean comments and emails calling us racists, biased, and everything else you could think of. I think it’s safe to say we won’t be going back there any time soon, although we held back a lot of footage and comments that would’ve really made them look like hillbillies. Keith nearly got into it with some frat guy in Wisconsin who claimed his father was a high powered Manhattan attorney who would sue us if he was seen on the internet. Turns out the kid was from Wayzata, and a compulsive liar. Other than that, it’s been a pretty smooth trip.

TDT: Ok quick hitters…
 
TDT: Best College Campus?
AB: Texas

TDT: Prettiest Co-Eds?
AB: Georgia

TDT: Favorite Stadium?
AB: Ohio State

TDT: Best Tailgating Scene?
AB: Georgia

TDT: Best Food?
AB: Texas

TDT: Best Crowd Chants?
AB: Wisconsin

TDT: Best Fans?
AB: Ohio State

TDT: Worst/Most Hostile Fans?
AB: West Virginia

Dick Wilke at the Stiftungsfestivities getting ready for another game in Collegeville.

TDT: Dick, can you introduce yourself to Johnnie Nation?

DW: Sure thing Max. I’m Dick Wilke and I’ve been vending in the Twin Cities metro for 28 years. I’ve worked the North Stars for 12 years, the Wild, Saints baseball, Gophers football, Gophers mens and womens basketball, and SJU hockey amongst other events.

TDT: Are you a Johnnie graduate or how did you become acquainted with St. John’s?

DW: Well, I’ve been coming up to SJU football games since 1995. A few years ago, I was working the Saints game in St. Paul and ran into Tom Linnemann the quarterback on the 2000 runnerup team. Then later in the year I was at the Metrodome working the Prep Bowl and had a chance to catch up with Tom. He put me in touch with Johnnie offensive coordinator, Jim Gagliardi, who thought it’d be a good idea to sell concessions at SJU football games. Jim got ahold of the AD there, Tom Stock, who saw the potential benefits at the football games and contacted Jeff Mathiasen who is in charge of concessions out at St. John’s.

TDT: What makes vending at SJU special for you and what do you sell up and down the aisles?

DW: Well, I sell pop and water and peanuts. And we all know there is no alcohol sold in the stadium at SJU. I also sell all Coke and Pepsi products along with lemonade. As far as what makes SJU great, I just really enjoy the open air, gorgeous Clemens Stadium. The fans are warm and friendly and there is hardly a better place to be each Fall Saturday afternoon.

TDT: How many events do you work each year? Meet any celebrities?

DW: I work approximately 275-300 events a year. I also work concerts selling beer in the Twin Cities. As far as celebrities, well not too many. I did sell to Tom Brokaw at the 1985 All-Star Game at the Dome and ran into Ted Turner with Jane Fonda at the 1991 World Series, also Gregory Peck many years ago.

TDT: Tell me what a typical day is like for you when you are scheduled to work an event.

DW: Well, at SJU I usually arrive about one and a half hours early, go and search out the tailgate parties, get a vibe for the day and the game. Then, I’ll head up to see if Jeff (Mathiasen) needs any help getting ready for the day. Around Noon, they’ll be about a 1000 people in the stands. I’ll start to work the homeside, the student section, and maybe the northside of the visitors seating.

TDT: What is something that the regular Joe sportsfan doesn’t realize about your job as a vendor?

DW: It gets hectic. People don’t realize it. They are coming up and down the aisles, going up to the restrooms, it gets busy. It is an excellent workout that comes with an enormous responsibility when serving alcohol (at the events in the Twin Cities).

TDT: Do you have a nickname that fans know you by (like Wally the Beerman)?

DW: (Laughter) Yeah, about 20 years ago, Wally and a few of the guys gave me the name “The Trickster”. I was always getting the good vending rooms at the Vikings game which made it easier to get the beer and helped to increase my sales dramatically. So Wally was always giving me a hard time. Now in the summer at the Saints’ games I’ll wear a Richard Nixon mask and the fans always get a kick outta that.

TDT: Lastly, how good would beer sales be at St. John’s if you could sell that instead of water/soda?

DW: A few people have asked, but no, a lot of people don’t realize the older crowd at SJU. Beer would go well I’m sure, but I’d say there is a happy medium right now. People really seem to appreciate the convenience of me bringing them a bottle of water or peanuts instead of climbing the steps to wait in line at the concession stand.