Sports

The (less than) beautiful game

By Matthew Semisch

10/07/2014

My working relationship with Tim Pfeifer on Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) football home gamedays has generally been a pretty comfortable one.

He has his own job to do and I have mine. With that in mind, apart from exchanging brief pleasantries before the game when our paths cross, I don’t bother him until after the final play has ended.

When I’ve met up with him on the field after games to interview him, it’s been pretty standard stuff. I ask for his thoughts on the game that just ended, he shares them and we’re done in five minutes.

That didn’t change on Saturday after the Lumberjacks’ 13-12 win over Vermilion at Les Christian Field. What was very different, however, was Pfeifer’s tone and demeanor.

After he gave a postgame speech to his players, I found him alone in the north end zone. Leaning against the pad that covers the bottom portion of the goal post, Pfeifer stared off into the distance with a visibly despondent look on his face.

I didn’t get the sense that he wanted to talk to me.

Not, in fairness, that I was sure there was anyone he wanted to talk to at the time.

I had my job to do, though. He knew that, and, to his credit, he was as accommodating as he’s ever been to me.

What he told me, however, was as profound as the expression on his face. He didn’t pull a single punch.

“Our kids just don’t understand, and they don’t listen very well to what coaches are trying to tell them,” Pfeifer said. “(The players) think they have all the answers, and we don’t have any, I guess, and we see where it gets us.

“One (offensive) touchdown again. Terrible.”

He wasn’t done there.

“I think we’re actually getting worse,” Pfeifer said. “This time of the year, we should be getting better but I think we’re getting worse.”

He was the polar opposite of happy with his team’s performance, and for good reason. DCB’s defense scored as much as the Jacks’ offense did on Saturday, and that’s in line with a pattern that has been forming.

DCB’s 12-0 victory at Mesabi Range on Sept. 27 had been a similar affair. The Jacks’ scores that day came on a safety, a field goal and a Josh Best interception returned for a touchdown.
Best came through again on Saturday and equalled DCB’s offense’s scoring output.

Neither team played well on Saturday. Vermilion was just as poor as DCB over large chunks of the game, especially in the first quarter when the Ironmen threw three of their six interceptions on the day.

The Jacks fared no better. Pfeifer hasn’t yet been able to ride a solid No. 1 quarterback, and DCB’s woes on Saturday arguably started with the Jacks’ three signal callers that played.

DeAngelo Orum started the game under center for DCB, but he found himself taken out of the game quickly. Two first-quarter interceptions in just over three minutes from the Jacks’ de facto starting quarterback put him on the shelf.

Fellow freshmen quarterbacks Krae Kelso (who threw a pick of his own) and Austin Ruiz then split time on the field, but they hardly did better. DCB’s three signal callers were 4-for-30 through the air on Saturday, and they netted a combined 53 yards rushing.

Orum statistically had the worst day of the three - 4-for-25 passing for 60 yards and only another four on the ground - but none of the DCB quarterbacks impressed.

In general, though, the Jacks grossly underperformed on Saturday. As for Pfeifer, what he’s seen recently from his team has him worried for them.

“I’ve coached many years (and enough) that wins and losses don’t matter to me anymore,” he said. “It’s how you play the game and are they growing up to be good young men, are they going to class, and right now I don’t think they’re growing up to be good young men...They’re not doing the right things, and that’s disappointing.”

It’s entirely possible Pfeifer told me these things so as to speak to his team through the newspaper. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened in the history of our lines of work.

It was far from being a banner day for the Jacks, and many issues need to be quickly resolved.

In terms of wins and losses, DCB is looking very good considering it’s in its first season as a member of a conference.
Performances as hard to watch as Saturday’s was in places, though, must swiftly become a thing of the past.