Spring Practices

[WeAreNorthDakota]

Anybody know if spring practices are open like fall camp practices? Would love to brave the cold and go get a look at the guys.

[geaux_sioux]

Usually they're wide open at memorial. Looks like they'll be in the alerus for the beginning unless they can get the field cleared of snow in time.

It would be nice to have people check out a practice or two and give a little report as to how the team looks

[WeAreNorthDakota]

I'd be more than happy to if they're open.

[mg2009]

i heard from a player in my class that they might be delayed for a week, and use the alerus otherwise. also the locker rooms are apparently closed for remodel or something along those lines.

[Feff]

When is the spring game supposed to be?

[UND-FB-FAN]

Alerus will be used if Memorial is still covered with snow; if Alerus is being used, then practices can't really be open but they are open practices at Memorial.

Spring Game is April 20th.

[Sioux10Fan]

Though team is starting a week later than planned Spring game is still April 20th. The week after the spring game the team is going to have three more practices to close out this offseason.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Any updates from the first day?

[homer]

The start of practice was pushed back until Wednesday. Spring game date has not changed though.

[Smoggy]

The start of practice was pushed back until Wednesday. Spring game date has not changed though.

I was hoping they would. I have to be out of town that day.

I saw some pics where a lot of shoveling happened today. Sounds like they got half the field done in 2 hours. They can start on my roof next!

[Matt]

Maybe I'm overreacting to this, but any thoughts on why the hell the players are doing their own snow removal from Memorial? Do they do roof repair on the Betty as well, or is facilities maintenance unique to the football squad?

It was absolutely embarrassing to watch the ac football team practicing on a clear field, to be followed by the story of the UND football team delaying the start of spring ball while video footage showed the team removing snow. AC players may talented at collecting signatures, but I would bet a paycheck they were not shoveling snow.

Even MSUMs physical plant personnel removed snow from their practice field last week to ensure the dragon football team could practice.

[Bison Dan]

Maybe I'm overreacting to this, but any thoughts on why the hell the players are doing their own snow removal from Memorial? Do they do roof repair on the Betty as well, or is facilities maintenance unique to the football squad?

It was absolutely embarrassing to watch the ac football team practicing on a clear field, to be followed by the story of the UND football team delaying the start of spring ball while video footage showed the team removing snow. AC players may talented at collecting signatures, but I would bet a paycheck they were not shoveling snow.

Even MSUMs physical plant personnel removed snow from their practice field last week to ensure the dragon football team could practice.

I thought they installed the new lockers too....

[ohihnds]

With the field turf it is safer to shovel off the snow unfortunately it is hard to control not blowing or sweeping all the rubber out of it with machines.

[UND1983]

Maybe I'm overreacting to this, but any thoughts on why the hell the players are doing their own snow removal from Memorial? Do they do roof repair on the Betty as well, or is facilities maintenance unique to the football squad?

It was absolutely embarrassing to watch the ac football team practicing on a clear field, to be followed by the story of the UND football team delaying the start of spring ball while video footage showed the team removing snow. AC players may talented at collecting signatures, but I would bet a paycheck they were not shoveling snow.

Even MSUMs physical plant personnel removed snow from their practice field last week to ensure the dragon football team could practice.

Fargo has way less snow than Grand Forks, like a lot. The snow melted off Dacotah Field naturally. That was not happening in GF.

[Bison Dan]

Fargo has way less snow than Grand Forks, like a lot. The snow melted off Dacotah Field naturally. That was not happening in GF.

Wrong - There was a lot of snow on the field but it was cleared last week down to the last inch or so and the sun did the rest. It's called planning...

[UND1983]

Wrong - There was a lot of snow on the field but it was cleared last week down to the last inch or so and the sun did the rest. It's called planning...

Wrong to you. Go to Grand Forks and look around at the amount of snow in yards. Then go to Fargo. Its not even close.

[Matt]

Fargo has way less snow than Grand Forks, like a lot. The snow melted off Dacotah Field naturally. That was not happening in GF.

...therefore, if there is snow present it is the players' responsibility for snow removal?

I don't know how much snow was or wasn't on Dacotah Field, but I do know the practice fields at Nemzek in Moorhead were snow covered until the physical plant personnel removed an area for the football team to practice.

"Here's the choice you have to make son. Both coaches will tell you how important you are to the program, and how much they want you but really take a look at how you are treated. Here you will be given every opportunity to win another national championship. There you will be delaying spring ball while you shovel snow off of your field because the football program isn't important enough for the maintenance staff to handle it...and I can assure you that the hockey team that plays in the best facility in the world will not be doing their own building and grounds maintenance."

I came up with that off the top of my head. Think of what other coaches will say.

[UND-1]

...therefore, if there is snow present it is the players' responsibility for snow removal?

I don't know how much snow was or wasn't on Dacotah Field, but I do know the practice fields at Nemzek in Moorhead were snow covered until the physical plant personnel removed an area for the football team to practice.

"Here's the choice you have to make son. Both coaches will tell you how important you are to the program, and how much they want you but really take a look at how you are treated. Here you will be given every opportunity to win another national championship. There you will be delaying spring ball while you shovel snow off of your field because the football program isn't important enough for the maintenance staff to handle it...and I can assure you that the hockey team that plays in the best facility in the world will not be doing their own building and grounds maintenance."

I came up with that off the top of my head. Think of what other coaches will say.

I am fairly certain that Plant Services would clear off the snow if they could have. Maybe that new turf combined with the amount of snow was too hard yo do? PS's has cleaned off the field every other year, I dont know why now would be different.

[Matt]

Pulled this off b'ville. Someone want to make another argument that the snow melted off considering the snow in the stands, endzone, and sidelines? pretty obvious there is a lot of snow there which has been somehow moved off the field of play into the endzones & sidelines.

[homer]

...therefore, if there is snow present it is the players' responsibility for snow removal?

I don't know how much snow was or wasn't on Dacotah Field, but I do know the practice fields at Nemzek in Moorhead were snow covered until the physical plant personnel removed an area for the football team to practice.

"Here's the choice you have to make son. Both coaches will tell you how important you are to the program, and how much they want you but really take a look at how you are treated. Here you will be given every opportunity to win another national championship. There you will be delaying spring ball while you shovel snow off of your field because the football program isn't important enough for the maintenance staff to handle it...and I can assure you that the hockey team that plays in the best facility in the world will not be doing their own building and grounds maintenance."

I came up with that off the top of my head. Think of what other coaches will say.

You forgot to mention if you come o FU you can throw sandbags in the spring.......

If they win games in the fall, no one will care what happened in the spring. This is the second time in memory where players shoveled snow off of Memorial. I do know of one time in that same time frame where snow was shoveled of the field at FU by players. I just walked over to a coworkers cube and asked him....he remembers it well. Both his arms are still attached to his body so you have nothing to worry about.

[UND-FB-FAN]

Maybe I'm overreacting to this, but any thoughts on why the hell the players are doing their own snow removal from Memorial? Do they do roof repair on the Betty as well, or is facilities maintenance unique to the football squad?

"Here's the choice you have to make son. Both coaches will tell you how important you are to the program, and how much they want you but really take a look at how you are treated. Here you will be given every opportunity to win another national championship. There you will be delaying spring ball while you shovel snow off of your field because the football program isn't important enough for the maintenance staff to handle it...and I can assure you that the hockey team that plays in the best facility in the world will not be doing their own building and grounds maintenance."

I came up with that off the top of my head. Think of what other coaches will say.

The players should not have to participate in the snow removal - that is ridiculous. As far as recruiting goes, NDSU's commitment to football is far greater than that of UND; thus, it doesn't take much for NDSU to produce more positive presentation points. I've said this before and I'll say it again, at the DI level it is difficult to consistently win in more than one sport because financial commitment to a particular sport is quite important. UND has committed to hockey and NDSU to football; it's that simple. Due to natural roster turnover, there will be some years UND's football team is better than NDSU's football team, but most years NDSU will have the football advantage due to increased funding. A more fair and justified comparison between the two schools would be the basketball programs - both are not the #1 sport at their respective school.

I will mention, in order to include some optimism, that the IPF will provide UND a particular advantage over NDSU which will help decrease the gap between the two programs. This whole snow removal issue would not even be present if the IPF was built and available for use. That day can't come soon enough for the UND football program.

[Matt]

You forgot to mention if you come o FU you can throw sandbags in the spring.......

If they win games in the fall, no one will care what happened in the spring. This is the second time in memory where players shoveled snow off of Memorial. I do know of one time in that same time frame where snow was shoveled of the field at FU by players. I just walked over to a coworkers cube and asked him....he remembers it well. Both his arms are still attached to his body so you have nothing to worry about.

You are absolutely right. Their arms will not detach from shoveling or sandbagging-in the event of a natural disaster. I'd suggest there is some middle ground between treating players like gods on earth & delaying practice while they remove their own snow.

[homer]

The players should not have to participate in the snow removal - that is ridiculous. As far as recruiting goes, NDSU's commitment to football is far greater than that of UND; thus, it doesn't take much for NDSU to produce more positive presentation points. I've said this before and I'll say it again, at the DI level it is difficult to consistently win in more than one sport because financial commitment to a particular sport is quite important. UND has committed to hockey and NDSU to football; it's that simple. Due to natural roster turnover, there will be some years UND's football team is better than NDSU's football team, but most years NDSU will have the football advantage due to increased funding. A more fair and justified comparison between the two schools would be the basketball programs - both are not the #1 sport at their respective school.

I will mention, in order to include some optimism, that the IPF will provide UND a particular advantage over NDSU which will help decrease the gap between the two programs. This whole snow removal issue would not even be present if the IPF was built and available for use. That day can't come soon enough for the UND football program.

bull$%!#...At the highest FBS level I would agree. You don't see many colleges who are dominant in multiple high profile sports. When it comes to FCS, there is no reason UND cannot be as successful.

UND has proven in the past, for long stretches it can be the better program. UNDs mistake was waiting to long to make the transition. The timing wasn't right, leadership wasn't in place, etc. for the reasons we didn't. It took some time to recover from some of the effects of being 2nd in line to make the transition. We brought those on by our decisions but our staff has done a good job working through those rough times and restocking with talent. We have people in leadership positions throughout the athletic dept. who are committed to getting the funds to be successful in all sports, that is also something that was lacking in the past.

[bincitysioux]

I hope at the very least that UND provided shovels to the players and didn't make them bring their own.

I agree this is embarrassing.

Didn't they already remove snow from Kraft Field, which I believe also partly turf?

[Cratter]

UND can be and was for a certain time better than Fargo. But history has shown Fargo to be a better overall program. That's no secret.