YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - Mount Marty College in Yankton is ramping up efforts to support its new football program.
The Catholic college is currently looking for a head coach and fundraising for more football player scholarships, the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan reported.
Mount Marty announced last month that it would join other Great Plains Athletic Conference members by offering a football team next year. The college also unveiled plans to build a $15 million field house, which is slated to open fall 2020.
A new coach should be hired by July 1, said Chris Kassin, the college’s athletic director.
“I would say we have received nearly 100 inquiries, and we’ve never posted it,” he said. “We’re getting that kind of interest just by word of mouth.”
The coach will handle the organizing and recruiting to “get the program where it needs to be,” Kassin said.
“The first recruiting class will come to campus in August 2020, although we wouldn’t turn away any students who want to come here during the next school year,” he said.
The college of roughly 500 students anticipates that the football program will boost its enrollment numbers.
Barb Rezac, the college’s vice president for institutional advancement, said they’ve already started fundraising $1.2 million for locker room renovations and other upgrades related to the football program.
The school is also working to generate more scholarships for football players, she said.
Rezac expects the growing enrollment to benefit Yankton’s workforce for years to come.
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Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, http://www.yankton.net/
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