In our attempt to bring you right into the huddle during Johnnie Football Camp we’ve enlisted the talents of Johnnie senior defensive lineman Andy Pierskalla. This fall will be the third season of action for Andy as extensive shoulder surgery in May of ‘07 forced the Farmington graduate to the sideline for a season of coaching and sharpening his pen. Andy was a member of the 2006 travel squad and will be reporting to JohnnieFootball.com throughout the season!
—DustySJU
Sorry this is late but our house doesn’t have internet yet so I’m at a friend’s house using his. Below are my thoughts thus far…
August 14th
Today we got our equipment. It always takes me a good hour to put my stickers on my helmet. Good thing Eric Buss was close and I made him put some of my stickers on. The first meeting of the year was quick and of course John was on fire with his routine. After all the forms were signed for the year, we were free for the rest of the evening. My roommates and I hung around home and watched Vegas Vacation and then went to bed.
August 15th
Today started with running and then we practiced after it. This running business takes a long time and outs the coaches in a bad mood for the first day of practice. There are just so many kids and it takes a long time to have everyone run and then the machine doesn’t always work when someone runs. The first practice is pretty boring but the new guys learn a lot about Johnnie football. NDSU transfer Jimmy Sharpe asked if practice got any harder and everyone just smiled at him. As practice wound down, the traditional Simon Says game was played, I don’t know who won. My roommates and I returned home and tried to get the place looking like a house. Of course after a half hour of work the video games started calling. Nick Gunderson and Mike Schumacher played Madden and Gunderson lost, twice, and blamed it on the controller. Next they played baseball and the controller was at it again. I was next to them on a smaller TV playing NCAA football for Xbox. At the night meeting, it’s tradition for the freshmen to go on stage at the defensive meeting and they say their name and where they are from and then an upperclassmen tries to name them all back. I was able to name each of the D-linemen. Alex Coughlin was able to name his fellow Linebackers and Dusty Clintsman was able to name the D-Backs.
August 16th
Nothing really happened today. My roommates and I went to Charter Communications and bought cable and internet. At the meeting tonight Ethan Eid was given the task of naming his fellow linebackers. He stumbled and named one by his summer job last year, which happened to be a bouncer at a strip club. The place erupted with laughter and of course the coaches had no clue until the young Johnnie shared his story. A pretty low key night otherwise. The Vikings are on and we do have practice tonight so it will be an early night, even for college kids on a Saturday. We get to wear pads tomorrow and really get practice going.
