The Rams fell to the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys 42-7 on Saturday in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The team wasn’t pleased with the way the game went and felt like they repeated some of the mistakes they made the week before in their 29-13 loss to Millsaps College, head coach Joe Prud’homme said.

“Our defense gave up too many big plays,” Prud’homme said Saturday. “Our special teams weren’t as sharp today as they were last week.”

Once again, the Rams had a worse first half than second half. The Cowboys scored 35 of their 42 points by halftime, according to ramsports.net.

The Rams’ lone touchdown came in the third quarter. Archie Amos caught a Kane Hardin pass on third down and ran the ball 26 yards, according to ramsports.net. Jermarcus Jones ran the ball four more yards to set up a one-yard touchdown pass from Hardin to Anthony Caston.

The Rams haven’t been outscored in the second half all season, according to ramsports.net

The loss puts the Rams at 0-3 for the season; they play Southwestern Assemblies of God University at Farrington Field on Saturday.

Here is what the Rams need to do to get back on track.

1. Be more aggressive on offense. The team has done pretty well in the second half but they need to bring that intensity in the first half as well, Prud’homme said.

“Our offense ran the ball better. We need to finish drives,” he said.

2. Maintain the same intensity during the game as at practice, linebacker Vincent Stephenson said.

“I think we brought more focus and a better effort at practice this week,” Stephenson said.

The team needs to work together throughout the whole game, not just in few quarters, he said.

“We also need to pick up the energy on the sideline no matter if things are going right or wrong,” he said.

3. Stick to their assignments and listen to their coaches, Ramsland said.

“We need to listen to the coaching staff and play with our hearts. We need to get better at squeezing the ball and blocking who we’re assigned to,” he said.

The defense needs to stick to the game plan and work more cohesively throughout the game, Stephenson said.

“As a defense, we need to work on sticking to our assignments trusting the player next to us,” he said.

4. Be more consistent, Prud’homme said.

“We have to put all three phases together and be more consistent overall,” he said. “We reduced our penalties considerably and that was a positive.”

The team does really well in some quarters but blows plays in others, he said.

“We also need to work on being more consistent from quarter to quarter,” Stephenson said.

5. Come ready to win, Ramsland said.

“We didn’t come to play. It was our worst game yet,” Ramsland said. “We have to execute and adapt to the other teams.”

The intensity the Rams normally have just wasn’t there, Stephenson said.

“I think we came out flat to start,” he said. “We did not look like ourselves in the first half of the game. Our intensity was not the way it was during the first two games but it will not happen like that again.”

 

Vincent Stephenson (36) making a tackle in the game against McPherson on Sept. 9.
Photo by Little Joe

The Rams are getting ready to travel to Las Vegas, New Mexico to play the Cowboys from New Mexico Highlands University on Saturday.

In last week’s 29-13 loss to Millsaps in the season’s home opener at Farrington Field, the Rams showed improvement in several areas over their season opener, according to head coach Joe Prud’homme.

This week the Rams want to play their hardest, said linebacker coach Michael Rosas.

The Rams plan to beat the Cowboys by:

1.  Pushing through the second quarter.

The Rams have to fight through the second quarter and stay calm and focused, Rosas said.

“For whatever reason that’s been the bane of our existence right now,” he said. “If we can manage the second quarter and get through it, then I think we’ll have a better opportunity of doing what we need to do this week.”

The team has given up some big plays in the second quarter in both the McPherson and Millsaps games, he said.

“I think it’s just an idea of getting more familiar with everybody out there,” he said. “It’s something about the second quarter where maybe the field position gets flipped and there’s some pressure situations that we’ve had to deal with.”

2. Eliminating basic mistakes.

The biggest improvement the Rams can make is perfecting basic plays, he said.

“I mean, the biggest thing is just eliminating mistakes,” he said. “I mean if you look at last week, Millsaps specifically, they came out and ran the same play at us a couple different times. The first time we were right with making that play and making that adjustment, but just being disciplined enough to get out there and do it again.”

3. Playing the best personnel for the situation.

“I think personnel is one of the biggest focuses right now, and trying to find out who is going to put us in the best position to win,” said cornerback Jordan Sutherlin.

The team has been trying different people at each position during practice to find out the best combination of guys to play against NMHU, said defensive end Ucheoma Oparaochaekwe.

4. Defending against big plays.

The Rams are installing a lot of new plays since last week didn’t give them the outcome they wanted, Sutherlin said.

“We just kept getting beat deep on the same play,” he said. “It wasn’t a bad game overall for us. But it was basically three big plays that messed up the whole game. We’re changing some stuff up so hopefully that doesn’t happen.”

The team allowed a big play during the second quarter against Millsaps that can be fixed by perfecting some basic fundamentals and keeping calm during high pressure plays, Rosas said.

“At the end of the half the punt snap got snapped out of the end zone [by the Rams],” he said. “There was a safety there. And then, on the ensuing kickoff [Millsaps] got decent field position, then in the final minute they were able to get into field goal position and that’s five points that you’d love to get back. [Millsaps] made the most of that opportunity. Maybe its experience, whatever you want to chalk it up to. But I think it’s just trying to be better in those specific situations.”

5. Combatting the Cowboys’ offense.

Most of the Cowboys are bigger than most of the Rams. The Cowboys have receivers that are 6 feet 4 inches and 6 feet 5 inches, and most of the Rams’ linebackers are around 6 feet tall.

“They’re really shifty running backs,” Sutherlin said. “That’s going to be a little hard for our linebackers. They’re slow, they’re not that quick, that’s something we hold against them.”

The Rams have been watching film on NMHU to learn their favorite play combinations, he said.

“They run a lot of mesh to kind of try to get us to run into each other,” he said. “Right now, we’re just working on stuff to just let it pass by and basically letting them to come to us instead of running all over the field.”

Offensively NMHU is one of the more vulnerable teams the Rams will face, Oparaochaekwe said.

“They’ve got some big guys but they don’t know how to move,” he said. “I feel like our defense is fast enough to where we can really expose that. But I feel like out of any team we’ve played so far this is the team that we should be the best against.”

The game can be livestreamed through NMHU’s StretchInternet portal that can be accessed through the game schedule at ramsports.net

The game is at 2 p.m. Saturday, in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Tickets will be for sale at the gate. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and children five and up; there are also family packs.

The Texas Wesleyan Athletic Training Staff passed out a “Concussion Fact Sheet for Faculty” at a campus wide faculty meeting before class started.

“The original idea actually came from one of our students Tammy Titlow who was doing a project for an English class,” Dr. Pamela Rast said, the Athletic Training Program Director.

Titlow came up with the idea for the proposal for a video project where the students were not allowed to speak and had to explain the proposal through cue cards, Rast said, a professor and the chair for the department of kinesiology.

“It was something that at Texas Wesleyan we could really do because we are smaller,” Rast said. “We as faculty get to know our students so we know when there is something off with one of our students.”

Wesleyan’s smaller size is an advantage because at a bigger school the professors don’t know their students as well which makes spotting subtle concussion symptoms almost impossible, Rast said.

The main reason for the cards is that so many athletes don’t report concussions so they can continue to play and many others don’t realize they have a concussion.

“[The athlete] may not develop symptoms of concussion right away,” Rast said. “It might be something that happens kind of over time. So, if a faculty member recognizes some of these signs or symptoms… now we have a mechanism by which that faculty member can get in touch with the athletic training staff to call that athlete in, and ‘let’s just take a look.’ It’s all about that athlete’s safety.”

The addition of football brought 125 young men to campus that are at risk for a concussion, and this addition prompted the creation of the concussion fact sheet, Rast said.

“Even though we are NAIA,” Rast said, “we have adopted some of the NCAA best practices for concussion management, and also in those practices is not just return to play but also return to learn. We have two members of our faculty that are familiar with concussion that are return to learn case managers.”

When an athlete has a concussion and they are out of class for a while or returning to a normal class schedule one of the return-to-learn case managers will communicate with the athlete and the faculty so everyone is clear on the athlete’s status, Rast said.

“There is a number essentially where if you’re a professor… it’s going to be a direct phone call to the athletic training facility,” Rast said. “We’ve given a list of the athletic trainers that are working with each sport so that that faculty member can call the athletic training facility and talk directly to that athletic trainer that is working with that team.”

If the team specific trainer can’t be reached then the faculty can call Dr. Rob Thiebaud and Dr. Pamela Rast, return to learn case managers, and they will notify the correct trainer, Rast said.

“Once the athletic training staff is notified that there is suspicion,” Rast said, “then those health care provides will get in touch with the athlete… do some basic testing that would identify whether this individual may have a concussion.”

Testing for a concussion doesn’t require fancy equipment or a trip to the hospital the athletic trainers administer some special diagnostic tests Impact and SCAT 5 to determine if the athlete needs more care, Rast said.

“Those individuals have gone through a baseline test called an impact test,” Rast said, “what would happen is after an individual has been diagnosed with a concussion, then that baseline test is compared to an additional test several days into their recovery and then again another several days into their recovery.”

The athletic training program aims to get athletes physically well not just so they can compete but so that they get back in the classroom as quickly and safely as possible, Rast said.

“Our main concern as faculty, obviously, is that our students receive a good education,” Rast said, “and that we put them in a situation where they can be successful academically. We want to make sure that we’re not stressing their brain too much or stressing their brain too little.

There is always new research about the brain and concussions being published, and there has been more information come out about how concussions can affect an athlete in the classroom, athletic director Steve Trachier said.

“They could have headaches or light sensitivity to the eyes or difficulty concentrating or remembering things,” Trachier said. “It’s important that professors understand that this is a real thing, and that they be able to work with the students and accommodate them when they might be experiencing some of these effects.”

The athletic training department had this idea and the athletic department is in full support because protecting the athletes is the most important thing, Trachier said.

“I think its driven by the athletic training department I think that Dr. Rast’s department will be the most knowledgeable in brain injury brain trauma and the effects of that,” Trachier said.

Football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer are the most at risk for concussion, Trachier said.

“When you participate in sport,” Trachier said, “there’s always a chance that you fall hit your head whatever so it’s always been there.”

The coaches, and athletic trainers are continually learning how to best diagnose a concussion, make sure that players don’t reenter a game, and what to do to best treat a concussion, Trachier said.

“Once again, we’re trying to take every precautionary measure we can to make the game safer,” Trachier said.

“I looked at it from the perspective of it was a proposal for an English project,” Tammy Titlow a senior liberal studies major, “but we’re so focused on our smaller smarter here and what can we do to take care of our athletes.”

Some of the research Titlow used for her project stated that parents would’ve gotten their children care if they had known the symptoms of concussion, Titlow said.

“[The athletes] come to school here, there isn’t a parent here, their buddy on the football team isn’t going to tell them to go report. So, I looked at it as ‘who’s next?’”

Since Wesleyan is smaller faculty can communicate with most of their students daily and pick up on any behavioral changes, Titlow said.

“So, we’re the caring person,” Titlow said, “we’re the one that’s going to reach out to the student and say, ‘something’s not right. Let’s go get you looked at,’ and so that’s how I approached the whole project.”

While the Rams’ home opener on Saturday at Farrington Field did not result in a victory, head coach Joe Prud’homme was excited about the improvements he saw in his team.

The Rams lost to Millsaps 29-13 before a crowd of 4,518, according to ramsports.net, and afterward Prud’homme praised his team for playing with a more mature mindset and making fewer penalties and basic mistakes.

“I thought the defense made plays when they needed to,” Prud’homme said, “and I thought the special teams were better. Yeah, we had the one bad snap, but I saw improvement and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Also, Prud’homme said, the offense moved the ball better and the defense stuck to their assignments better.

The Rams racked up 16 first downs and 212 total offensive yards, all but nine of which were passing, according to ramsports.net. The Majors had 354 total offensive yards.

The Rams’ first score came in the third quarter as Bryce Nye hit a 30-yard field goal that had been set up by a 78-yard Donovan Davidson kickoff return, according to ramsports.net. Later in the quarter, quarterback Kane Hardin hit Erik Richards for a 24-yard touchdown pass.

Hardin had another impressive game, completing 18 of 33 passes for 183 yards; he had one interception, according to ramsports.net.

Here are five things the Rams did well:

1. Playing with more maturity.

“I thought we were much more mature in this game,” Prud’homme said. “We didn’t make the big plays to kill ourselves. We did allow some big plays that hurt us.”

2. Running the ball.

“We thought our persistence in the run game, running the ball on offense was good,” Prud’homme said.

Running back Erik Richards agreed, saying that the run game was much better than during last week’s McPherson game.

“We were moving the ball up the middle and that’s a big part of the offense that we need,” Richards said.

3. Execution.

The team just needs to start doing the basics well early on in the game, Hardin said.

“In the second half, once we got settled in we did some good things,” he said. “We just have to execute some fundamental things, but we did that in the second half.”

4. Throwing the ball.

The offense overall did a better job moving the ball down the field this week, Richards said.

“I think we came together better as an offense,” Richards said. “We got the ball rolling a little more. Our drives didn’t end with three outs every time like they did last week. I guess overall we just moved the ball down the field a little better.”

5. Playing with more confidence.

Prud’homme has wanted the team to stay calm and collected on the field since he first started recruiting, he said.

“They looked calmer to me,” Prud’homme said. “We’re just working on, ‘Hey, it’s not the end of the world. We’re building something here so that’s kind of what that’s all about.’”

The Rams travel to Las Vegas, New Mexico next week to play the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys at noon on Saturday, Sept. 16. The game will be shown at portal.stretchinternet.com/nmhu, which can be accessed through the season schedule at ramsports.net.

Head football coach Joe Prud’homme knows what the Rams need to do to beat the Millsaps Majors on Saturday.

“We need to get into a rhythm,” Prud’homme said after last week’s season-opening loss to McPherson College. “If we can get into a rhythm and prevent big plays and not turn the ball over or have stupid penalties or any penalties for that matter.”

Prud’homme said he appreciates the support Texas Wesleyan has given the team so far this season, and he realizes that last week was the first time that most of his squad had ever played college football.

Still, he said, the Rams have to improve a lot on last week, and playing smart is a big part of that.

“[The Rams] have a long way to go and a short time to get there,” Prud’homme said. “We can’t give them anything. We can’t give them any big plays. We can’t blow assignments.”

The top five ways the Rams can improve:

1. “Field position,” Prud’homme said. “Getting better field position through special teams and offensively move the ball a little bit.”
2. Making sure there are no more of the sort of botched center-quarterback exchanges that happened in the McPherson game, said running back Jermarcus Jones.

“We need to work on our snaps. If we do that we put us in a great position to win,” Jones said.

3. The Rams need to be calmer in their execution throughout the game, Prud’homme said.

“Having a little more calm, composed approach instead of getting so overly excited,” Prud’homme said. “Because they were very excited. Just go into it with just more experienced, mature mindsets.”

4. “We need to work on executing and locking in,” running back Da’vonte Mitchell-Dixon said. “If we play like a unit, we’ll win like a unit.”
5. “Control the game a little more with time of possession,” Prud’homme said, “and just keep the ball out of their hands a little bit more. I think if we do those things we’ll be alright. But field position is huge; we had horrible field position the other night.”

What the Rams know about Millsaps:

1. The Majors have an excellent coaching staff, he said.
2. “The team is very experienced,” he said.
3. “[Millsaps] executes at a high level,” he said. “We have to be very sound in what we do and how we do it.”
4. The Majors may not have won a lot last year, but they were always in the game. The team’s 2016 record was 3-7, but that’s a little misleading, because four of those losses were by a touchdown or less, according to gomajors.com.
5. The Majors are loaded with talent. Four players were selected to First Team All-Sooner Athletic Association, one was selected to Second Team All-SAA and six were SAA honorable mentions, according to gomajors.com.

Prud’homme realizes he has a growing program, and he wants Wesleyan to be proud of the team he’s creating.

“We’re just extremely young,” Prud’homme said, “and just hang in there with us and we’re going to grow and get better.” 

After the Texas Wesleyan Rams lost their first game of the 2017 season to the McPherson Bulldogs, head coach Joe Prud’homme was asked what the team needs to work on.

His answer was succinct.

“Everything,” Prud’homme said shortly after the 43-14 loss in Kansas on Saturday. “A lot of plays we normally make in practice just weren’t there. I think nerves had something to do with it.”

The Rams did not really start to play well until the fourth quarter, but in the first half they had “just too many mistakes” to recover from, Prud’homme said.

The team scored both of its touchdowns in the fourth quarter. First, receiver Erik Richards ran 28 yards after catching a Kane Hardin pass. A few minutes later, Hardin hit receiver Donovan Davidson across the middle on an 82-yard play for the second touchdown.

“Amazing,” Hardin said. “There’s no words to describe it. It was awesome the way it played out. Erik Richards was the receiver that caught it and if there was a guy to deserve that first touchdown, it’s him.”

Hardin said he is ready to be back in Fort Worth practicing and gaining experience with the team. Prud’homme said the team will be practicing at 6 a.m. Tuesday at the Polytechnic High School field.

Most of McPherson’s roster carries juniors and seniors. Almost all their starters are upperclassmen. Wesleyan’s roster holds mostly freshmen and redshirt freshmen with a few sophomores and juniors.  

“We just need to keep doing the things we’re doing and perfect our craft.” Hardin said. “We kind of beat ourselves at times on Saturday. I don’t think nerves really affected it. Our guys were ready to go. We just need to execute better.”

The first half of the game was rough for the Rams but they played more cohesively in the second half, said linebacker Vincent Stephenson.

“As a team, we all need to become more disciplined,” Stephenson said, “and stick to the assignments the coaches give us. We had a lot of good plays, they were just scattered. On defense, we continued to fight even when our backs were against the wall. The defense really came together in the second half.”

Every member of the team gave it their all and the coaches called plays that put the players in good situations, he said.

“The coaches made calls that put me in the position to make plays,” Stephenson said, “and I made as many as I could.”

The Rams want to show Wesleyan fans that the first game isn’t the defining moment of their season, Stephenson said.

“I think nerves played a small role in the game today,” Stephenson said, “but that happens in any team’s first game of the season. I don’t think nerves are what did it though, I think we beat ourselves.”

The team is ready to practice and prepare for Saturday’s  home opener against Millsaps College now that they’ve gotten the first game under their belt, said running back Jermarcus Jones.

“It’s been 76 years since Texas Wesleyan has had a team, so I feel there were some nerves because we wanted to do good,” Jones said.

The team held its composure and kept fighting even when the game got difficult, Jones said.

“When we didn’t have blown plays, we executed well,” Jones said. “We need to work on our snaps and eliminating penalties. If we do that, we put ourselves in a great position to win.”

Jones said he had some good plays, and with a little more practice he’ll be ready to lead the Rams to a victory.

“It’s a lot of things I could’ve done better,” Jones said. “I have to come out strong in practice next week to improve my performance for next week. I hope we can move past this and put on a show,” Jones said, “and show what Texas Wesleyan Football really is all about.”

The Rams’ home opener is 2 p.m. Saturday; the team takes on the Millsaps College Majors at Farrington Field, which is at the corner of University and 7th Street. Tickets are available at ramsports.net and are $10 general admission, $5 for faculty, staff and children under 12.

The Rams take the field for the first time since 1941. Video by Karan Muns

After all the hype, and all the waiting, Texas Wesleyan’s first football team in 75 years is ready to finally take the field.

The Rams will take on McPherson College in McPherson, Kan. on Saturday afternoon, and the team is practicing hard and watching film of the Bulldogs nearly every day.

“We’ve been looking at telecasts you can find on the internet,” head coach Joe Prud’homme said, “things of that nature; you know as far as any real high quality film to go off [there’s not any] and it’s also a year old. So you’re looking at it schematically personnel wise it is tough.”

McPherson, 1-10 last season, has an excellent quarter back, junior Ed Crouch, Prud’homme said.

“He’s a threat to run or throw, and if you don’t tackle him you’re in trouble,” Prud’homme said.

McPherson may not have had a good record in 2016, but the team has no shortage of good players, and the Rams are prepared, Prud’homme said.

“They’re odd-man front at times,” Prud’homme said of the Bulldogs’ defense. “They move around a lot so there’s not just a set thing they’re going to do, which is to be expected. So, as long as we can pick up and communicate and have our rules in place, we’ll be okay.”

The Rams are leaving Wesleyan Friday morning to head to Kansas; being able to spend the night in Kansas will allow the players to rest from the trip and bond together as a team, Prud’homme said.

“We just haven’t played anybody else, so that makes it different,” Prud’homme said. “Any time you play somebody different it automatically makes the team come closer together, because now they’ve got a common goal.”

The team has been focusing on themselves lately and reviewing mistakes made at practice in meetings, Prud’homme said.

“We’ve been doing a lot of self-evaluation,” he said. “I mean we film ourselves; we film practice; we have meetings on every practice. So we’ve been focusing on ourselves a little bit more than them.”

The team has been rough around the edges but it’s exciting to see it all come together, Prud’homme said.

“I think that they’ll be tremendously excited, but they’ll also be nervous,” Prud’homme said. “My hope, my goal is that they play calm and composed.”

The goal for the McPherson game is to keep calm and ultimately win, Prud’homme said.

“I do want them to play with a controlled emotion and I want them to be calm,” he said. “I think that the teams that are mature and maintain composure tend to win games at the end. That’s kind of what my goal for these guys is, that they are the kind of team that competes and puts themselves in the position to win in the fourth quarter.”

The Rams and their coaching staff really appreciate all of the support that the Wesleyan community has given the team.

“We are optimistic about our chances,” Athletic Director Steve Trachier said, “but it is an exciting time for the university. You can sense the excitement in the air that football has generated.”

Football is going to be a very good thing for Texas Wesleyan, he said.

Redshirt freshman running back Davonte Mitchell-Dixon said the Rams are reviewing film of the Bulldogs to prepare for their non-traditional defense.

“Some techniques and stuff they use their defense is a little different than a 4-3 defense,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get ready for them specifically.”

The team watches two hours of film three or four days out of the week to correct mistakes and get prepared for the upcoming game, Mitchell-Dixon said.

“So in a film session we pretty much go over what we did at the practice we did in the morning,” Mitchell-Dixon said. “So we’ll go through team during practice in the morning and if you had any mistakes or problems adjusting to what we were doing they’ll go over tips and how to fix what you did.”

The team has been running after every practice to stay in shape and prevent injuries throughout the season, said Mitchell-Dixon, a mass communication major.

“It’s just an ongoing thing so at practice we get like a four-minute break to get water, get situated and then back doing drills and drills and drills,” Mitchell-Dixon said.

The team takes minimal breaks at practice to get used to the fast pace of a real game, he said.

“For a new team, I think we’re ready,” Mitchell-Dixon said. “I don’t think we’re going to have the outcome every other team thinks we’re going to be having. I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. I think we’re going to have a really good season this year.”

The defense has been studying a lot of McPherson’s plays and creating new plays to make sure they know what to do in each situation, cornerback Warren Coltong said.

“We’ve been doing team install, really going over what [McPherson’s] offense is going to be doing like what routes the receivers are going to be running, what linebackers are going to blitz, and which holes there are going to be,” said Coltong a redshirt freshman mass communication major.

Overall, the team feels ready to compete and is ready to see their hard work pay off, Coltong said.

“I feel like our coaches are putting us in the best position to win, and hopefully, our game plan works,” Coltong said.

The game will be streamed via ramsports.net; go to the schedule, find the McPherson game, and click watch.

The Rams practiced at Farrington Field on Wednesday morning to showcase their skills and run plays to prepare for the first football game since 1941, head coach Joe Prud’homme said.

The Rams will practice at Farrington Field this week and begin practicing at Polytechnic High School from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. next week, Prud’homme said during the Texas Wesleyan Football Media Day, which drew representatives from several area television stations, radio stations and publications.

“I like the schedule,” Prud’homme said. “ I don’t like that we’re not in the heat. I wish we were in the heat, that’s the only thing that bothers me.”

The return of football has done amazing things for Wesleyan, Texas Wesleyan University President Frederick Slabach said.

“The students are very excited about it and so that’s the best thing,” Slabach said. “There’s just another opportunity for great student life, but our alumni are also very excited about it. It’s a benefit both on campus and for our alumni off campus.”

The Rams kick off the season against McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas on Sept. 2. The Rams will play their first home game against Millsaps College on Sept. 9 at 2 p.m.. Their final regular season game is against Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma on Nov. 11.

Slabach is optimistic about the Rams’ first season since 1941. He wants the athletes to be competitive on the field and focused in the classroom.

“This year I think we’re going to win some games,” Slabach said. “I just hope that we’re more focused on just being competitive on this first round out and less worried about exactly how many games.”

The athletes getting an education is the number one priority for the coaches at Wesleyan, Slabach said.

“If you’re talking about Wesleyan football, I want you to feel a sense of pride,” Prud’homme said.

The main focus for this season is to be competitive and improve as a team, he said. “[I hope] we’re in every game, and we have a fighting shot in the fourth quarter, and we have an opportunity to close the deal.”

The goal for the next five years is for the program to be a tough competitor in the Central States Football League, Prud’homme said.

“I think we’ll be in the conference championship conversation every year after five years,” Prud’homme said. “I do believe that we’ll be in the playoffs conversation every year… I believe we’ll be on the map.”

The Rams will put pads on Thursday and this will give the coaches and the team a glimpse at what the season will look like, Prud’homme said.

“Football is hard to watch when you can’t hear it … Basketball coaches love the thump-thump in the gym I love the crack-crack on the field,” Prud’homme said.

Football is possibly the best way to bond as a college in Texas, Athletic Director Steve Trachier said.

“Nothing brings a community together like a football game,” Trachier said. “It’s not just the game itself; it’s a community effort. I’m incredibly excited about starting a football program because of what it’ll mean to the university in terms of opportunities for people to socialize and become more connected with the university.”

A football team will also draw more athletes for other sports and more traditional students, Trachier said.

“I think as we continue to grow the athletic department football is an integral piece of that, and it’s going to be a big draw for bringing in athletes for other sports and bringing in students,” Trachier said.

The team has been working out and conditioning on their own all summer to prepare for team practices and the upcoming games, said linebacker Dewaun Colbert.

“On the defense side of the ball, we did pretty good. We’ve got the freshman coming in and learning, and we’ve got the returners coming and helping them. I mean right now we’re on the road to be great,” Colbert, a redshirt freshman business major, said.

The freshman and returners have been working together to create chemistry and learn plays quickly, said quarterback Kane Hardin.

“A lot of the freshman are stepping up and filling a great role. They’re doing great and learning quick, learning on the run. It’s going smooth lately,” said Hardin, a redshirt sophomore mass communication major.

The team hasn’t been preparing for any teams specifically, Hardin said. They’re just trying to be their best.

“It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing we’re just trying to master our own craft,” Hardin said. “We’re trying to be the best we can be.”

The team is excited to put on pads Thursday and start going full speed again, said running back Jemarcus Jones.

“I think we’re ready to put the pads on tomorrow,” Jones, a redshirt junior business management major, said. “It’s going to be hot, but we have to get ready because most of our games are during the midday. I feel like it’s going to help us get ready for the games coming up.”

The Rams are eager for the first game and to be in front of a crowd again, said linebacker Vincent Stephenson.

“I can’t wait to actually be on the field,” Stephenson, a redshirt junior business management major, said. “We’ve been working so hard to get everything together as a team and everything is looking good.”

Season tickets can be purchased for $45 general admission, $22.50 faculty and staff, and children $22.50 on ramsports.net. Single game tickets are $10 general admission and $5 kids 12 and under. Parking is free.

After more than seven decades, football returned to Texas Wesleyan on Saturday.

Held at Farrington Field, the Blue & Gold game drew an estimated 2,500 people, and head coach Joe Prud’homme was happy with what he saw.

“I thought it was a little sloppy but I thought all in all it went really well,” Prud’homme said.

The scrimmage consisted of two 30-minute halves. The offense wore gold and the defense wore blue; the kickers and quarterbacks wore white.

“[The crowd] was pretty good,” Prud’homme said. “You know we didn’t give them a whole lot of scoring to get too excited about. All in all, I thought it was a really good first time through. I saw a lot of good things. I saw a lot of effort. I saw a lot of people flying around, and it was fun to get out here.”

Prud’homme said the game was a great way to watch the players in a live setting and get a better understanding of the team as a whole.

“Some guys went up higher on the depth charts and we had some guys drop a little bit, and then we’ve got more guys coming so we won’t know anything really until August,” he said.

Twenty-eight incoming signees were announced at halftime; they will begin attending Wesleyan in the fall.

Quarterback Justin Arth said the team was excited and eager to begin the spring game.

“It felt great to run out of the tunnel for warmups and see people in the stands rooting for us,” said Arth, a freshman business management major. “And as the stands filled, it seemed like my confidence grew as each person walked in the stands before kickoff.”

Arth said he is looking forward to playing in the fall and was lucky that his mom, Michelle Arth, was able to fly in from Atlanta to see him play.

“I think the team as a whole did a great job with the intensity and competitiveness desired by the coaching staff while still taking care of each other and putting on a show the fans will want to come see in the fall,” Arth said.

Arth was on the offensive gold team that won the game 14-0. The defensive blue team would have only been able to score if they had intercepted the ball.

“I know as an offense we can always improve on consistently moving the ball and putting the ball in the end zone,” Arth said.

Freshman linebacker Mark James said that while the team gave a good performance, there is still work to be done.

“For the most part, I think it went pretty well,” said James, an education major. “I don’t think that was like a first game, since that was a scrimmage. But yeah, you could say it was like the first-game experience with the crowd and the people there.”

James said he is hopeful for the team’s future.

“I’m not too feeling bad about it, because there’s still the future,” he said. “We still got time to get better, and we just gone take that time to do what we need to do. We see our flaws and we just gone perfect it this summer.”

For the fans, the afternoon was an opportunity to see friends and relatives on the field. Freshman criminal justice major Tyler King said it was exciting to see some of her friends play.

“It was cool getting to watch them and see what they have been working on,” King said. “They’ve been working toward this for a long time.”

King said attending the spring game really added to her college experience, and that it was an interesting first look into what football means for Wesleyan.

“It was fun getting to hang out with everyone and getting to experience the college football experience,” King said.

Tarmela Jones, the aunt of freshman defensive linebacker athletic training major Andrew Walker, said she thought the team could use a little cleaning up, but they did pretty well and have a lot of potential.

“They didn’t look bad, they just need to be polished,” Jones said. “Of course, [it’s different] from what we normally used to seein’ in the bigger leagues, but they’re good. They just need some work and they’ll have a lot of supporters.”

But at least one spectator had no connection with Wesleyan, and hadn’t even planned on being in the stands.

Johnathan Bermudez was on his way to run in Trinity Park and saw that something was going on at Farrington Field. While he said he had never even heard of Texas Wesleyan, he ended up watching the entire scrimmage and enjoying his little detour.

“I enjoyed the game, it was a really nice day out,” Bermudez said. “It was a scrimmage so, you know, it wasn’t like a football game, but it was pretty fun, beautiful to watch. When the ball was thrown into wind, the quarterback was having a tough time, but I think overall, everyone was played pretty well, especially for a spring game.”

The Rams open the 2017 season at McPherson College in McPherson, Kan. on Sept. 2. The home opener is Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. against Millsaps College at Farrington Field.

Tickets for the 2017 season are on sale now. Season tickets are $45 general admission and $22.50 for children 12 and under and are for all five home games. Single game tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for children 12 and under. Parking is free. Tickets can be purchased at ramsports.net/tickets.

Additional reporting by content producer Matt Smith. 

Texas Wesleyan women’s golf team is one of the best in the nation, but that’s not enough.

The Lady Rams, which have been ranked in the top 10 in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics most of the season, are hungry for their first national championship, sophomore finance major Alex Schies wrote in an email.

“We’ve been practicing every day, with having qualifiers every Tuesday and Thursday for the top 5 spots, to help prepare us for the pressure,” Schies wrote. “Outside of that, we practice on our own on the weekends.”

The team got off to a rocky start this season, falling to No. 13 in final poll of the fall, but since then there has been steady improvement, Schies wrote.

“We did well at our most recent tournament and beat five of the seven top 15 teams, so that gave us a major boost to No. 10,” Schies wrote. “We have one more tournament, hosted by Oklahoma City, then we have conference at the end of the month and hopefully a bid to nationals at the end of May.”

The team was ranked No. 10 on April 7 in the 2016-2017 NAIA Women’s Golf Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, according to naia.org. The NAIA national championships are May 23-26 in Florida.

The team has been resilient and worked through difficulties all year during practice and tournaments, Schies wrote.

“We have worked hard this year and never given up,” Schies wrote, “no matter what happens to us in a tournament. Every time we’ve gotten knocked down, we’ve come back at the next tournament and proven ourselves.”

The team is motivated by the knowledge that the players have the talent and skills it takes to win at nationals, Schies wrote.

“We know how close we are and what we are capable of doing,” Schies wrote. “We want to make sure we solidify a spot for nationals, so then once we get there we can then prove ourselves. Last year we got one of the last spots, but finished fourth, and if we wouldn’t have been delayed we were in position to win it. So that definitely motivates us, knowing we can do it.”

The team has a saying to keep them motivated and encouraged on the green, Schies wrote.

“We usually say ‘Vamos cabrones,’ meaning ‘Let’s go Rams’ in Spain,” Schies wrote. “Elena [Romero] is from Spain, and she taught us that. Every team has something unique at tournaments and we wanted something unique, so Elena came up with this.”

Schies is excited to see where the rest of the season takes them because of the toughness and resilience this team has.

“I’m proud of us, like I said earlier, no matter how hard of a day any of us have had on the golf course we don’t give up and we continue to get better,” Schies wrote. “We’ve shown a lot of progress this year and hopefully we continue to get even better.”

The team has only one goal, Schies wrote.

“Win a national championship, for sure.”

The team prepares in a very simple way, wrote freshman psychology major Trudy Allen: Practice, play, practice, repeat. Every day.

The team encourages each other to be better golfers every day, Allen wrote.

“Overall we have been doing pretty good,” Allen wrote, “and it helps that we are all motivated and pushing each other to play better than the previous round.”  

Allen wrote that she is motivated by the possibility of winning a national championship.   

“I golf more now than I ever have before because I know I have potential to be really good and help my team be even better,” Allen wrote. “Potential motivates me. I feel we are so close to being really really great. When we come together as one, that’s when we will be at our best. “

The team is doing so well because everyone has the same mind set at this point, Allen wrote.

“I think we are getting to where we should be,” Allen. “Everyone is working hard because we all want to be the best that we can be. We can’t be the best without hard work and dedication and all of us know that.”

Allen wrote that she tries to help the team the only way she really can, by practicing her own skills.  

“My goal during this season is to just practice as much and as hard as I can for the upcoming tournaments we have,” Allen wrote. “You can’t control how anyone else plays but you have the power to be the best you can with just practice. Lots of practice.”