Star Tribune: Cloudy football future in St. Cloud

Dave Schwarz, St. Cloud Times

St. Cloud State football coach Scott Underwood and his football team face an uncertain future.

Cloudy football future in St. Cloud

Before the Huskies open the Division II football playoffs at home, they anxiously await the results of voting on student fees, which could decide if the school will field a team next year.

By PATRICK REUSSE, Star Tribune

Last update: November 16, 2010 - 11:04 PM

St. Cloud State campaigned for years to get an adequate football home, and it finally arrived in 2004 with the opening of Husky Stadium. The 4,200-seat facility includes artificial turf, a grandstand and press box, and an up-close view of the Mississippi River.

The women's soccer team will continue to enjoy this fine venue for years to come. There's no such certainty for the Huskies football team, which could be playing its last home game ever when Hillsdale [Mich.] College arrives Saturday for a first-round meeting in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Students have been voting this week on whether to approve two increases in the activities fee -- one for 74 cents per credit and a second for an additional $1 a credit. Presumably, if both were to pass, draconian cuts to athletics would not be necessary and football would be saved.

The voting concludes Wednesday. And if the referendums fail, the odds are strong that university President Earl Potter will end the school's 88-year tradition of playing football.

Potter and Morris Kurtz, the long-serving athletic director, made this clear with the announcement in mid-August that dropping football was an option for dealing with projected deficits of $500,000 in athletics in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference saw Potter's threat to drop football as serious enough to have its board of directors take this stand three weeks ago: Football is now among the required sports, and any member not fielding a team will be dropped from the 14-school conference.

Amid this uncertainty, coach Scott Underwood's Huskies put together a 9-2 season and advanced to the Division II playoffs for the third time. The others came in 1989 and 2004. The infrequency of postseason play didn't dissuade the Huskies from preseason optimism.

"We expected to be a playoff team,'' Underwood said. "We opened at Augustana, had a nine-point lead with nine minutes to play and let the game get away. We went back to work.''

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Blizzard Bill's Playoff Forecast

From The 13abc 1^st warning Storm Lab & Blizzard Bill Spencer, Chief Meteorologist and Charger Dad

Your Playoff game weather forecast

Travel From Hillsdale Thursday – Saturday Looks Good. No Storms.

Maybe some late night , early morning freezing fog patches. Best to travel in the day.

Game Forecast

Kickoff Weather 27, Cloudy, East Wind 10mph

Halftime Weather, 29, Cloudy East wind 14 mph

End of game 30, Cloudy, flurries moving in

For travel home, some light snow Saturday Night and Sunday in St. Cloud.

No Snow for Hillsdale. Not bad travel conditions for November.

Questions ?

Blizzardbill1209@yahoo.com

GO CHARGERS

Division II Playoff Bracket and Free Webcast Link

All NCAA Division II Playoff games will be available for free viewing. Saturday's first round match up between Hillsdale and St. Cloud can be viewed by visiting the official NCAA bracket.

Click on "By Day", "By Round", or "By Team" and find the Hillsdale - St. Cloud game for the link.

The bracket is nice because it has live updates for the other games in progress.

Scouting St. Cloud: Highlights of BSU-SCSU Game

Highlights from St. Cloud State's 35-14 win over Bemidji State.

I wonder if Molly will be at the game.

Thanks to friends in the right places, I learned of a very funny St. Cloud related skating cheerleader story.

Way back in 2001 when St. Cloud State played Michigan in the hockey regional held at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, skating cheerleader Molly McGannon didn't like the reception from the Michigan fans.

A year later when St. Cloud had to return to the Great Lake State and the regional on Michigan's home rink, Molly let her feelings be known in print.

“The University of Michigan fans are like combining (North Dakota) Sioux fans and Minnesota Gophers fans,” McGannon told the St. Cloud Times a few days before the game. “They’re horrible people. It’s like they’ve never seen hockey cheerleaders.

“Their band was obnoxious, horrible, not very welcoming at all. Now it’s going to be on their home ice, and they’ll be worse.”

The quotes were quickly picked up and printed in the Michigan student paper. As the "We Can't Hear You Blog" put it, "For 24 hours Molly McGannon was the most hated person in Ann Arbor."

According to reports from the game, Michigan fans did nothing to disappoint Molly's assessment. They waved dollar bills and chanted vulgar stuff and that woulda been that until the skating mascot Blizzard decided he was going to defend Molly's honor and take on the Michigan team. During UM introductions Blizzard started skating across the red line and taunting the Wolverines with this hockey stick. Michigan defenseman Mike Komasierek had seen enough and slashed the stick out of Blizzard's hands. But Blizzard must have been really ticked now because he did the unthinkable and tripped a Michigan player. It didn't take the Wolverines long before they jumped Blizzard and began to pound the snot out of him.

The night would culminate in a $10,000 fine from the NCAA stating the University failed to control its crowd. But, Michigan won 5-3 and advanced the next night to the Frozen Four with a win over U Denver.

Raider Veldheer uses bye week to spend time with the Chargers

No Raider Nation, rookie LT Jared Veldheer wasn't spending time with THOSE Chargers. He was able to spend some time back on the Hillsdale College campus during Oakland's bye week with the Division II playoff bound Chargers.

Veldheer was on hand to see 21 seniors play their last game at Muddy Waters Stadium and do a little mentoring along the way.

Seats on the Hillsdale team charter to St. Cloud available for $299.

Flight information:

Friday November 19th Sun Country Airlines Toledo, OH Departs 11:00 a.m. (EST)

Arrives Hubert Humphrey Terminal Minnesota Arrives 11:30 a.m. (CT)

Saturday November 20th Sun Country Airlines Hubert Humphrey Terminal, Minnesota Departs 8:30 p.m. (CT)

Arrives Toledo, OH 11:05 p.m. (EST)

The cost is $299.00 per person round trip or $149.50 per person one way.

Please call during business hours (517) 437-7364 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (Closed 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.)

Visa/MC or Discover we will need the name as it appears on government I.D., weight and date of birth.

Please provide your own ground transportation and hotel and meals.

The team is staying at Best Western Kelly Inn, St. Cloud MN. Please identify that you are with the Hillsdale College football for the group rate $59.95 (320) 258-8404.

Tickets available Wednesday at ticketmaster.com $15.00 adult/$5.00 student ticket.