03/19/07

The College of St. Scholastica has named its first football coach in its 95-year history.

Greg Carlson, former head coach at Wabash College in Indiana and currently a defensive line and linebackers coach for the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, will lead St. Scholastica’s new varsity football program.

St. Scholastica will field a team in the fall of 2008.

“Coach Carlson is the right person to represent our commitment to the Division III philosophy of the student athlete,” said St. Scholastica President Larry Goodwin. “He has an impressive record of success as head coach at a nationally ranked liberal arts college. We look forward to his contribution to the development of St. Scholastica’s students and our college’s tradition of athletic achievement.”

Carlson said he is excited by the opportunity.

“St. Scholastica stands out to me as a college that has set the table for building a successful football program,” he said. “A lot of time and effort has already gone into it by so many people. The folks I’ve met on campus are just exceptional. I became convinced that this was everything I hoped it could be for starting a football program.”

St. Scholastica Athletic Director Tony Barrett said he is thrilled to hire Carlson.

“Not only do we get a coach with a great record for winning football games at private ‘D-III’ schools,” Barrett said, “but we get a man who is known within his profession for his ethical conduct and understanding of the primary place for academics. Everyone has told us that the key ingredient for having a successful start of a new football program is to hire the right person as your first coach.  When describing the traits of the right guy, everyone was essentially describing Greg Carlson.”

Brian Dalton, St. Scholastica vice president for enrollment management and associate dean for program development, said Carlson is a rare individual. Dalton served on the selection committee and has done national research on football programs at the Division III level.

"Coach Carlson’s core philosophy of utilizing sports is to prepare young men for life and for success beyond college - absent the undue pressure of athletic scholarships,” Dalton said. “That's Division III athletics, that's the St. Scholastica way". 

Carlson said he found several characteristics of St. Scholastica very appealing, including the values of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica who founded the College, the depth of the College’s curriculum, and the chance to build a football program from the ground up.

Competing in NCAA Division III “is truly about finding the right fit,” he said. “By that I mean finding that athlete who fits the academic profile of The College of St. Scholastica, who is serious about pursuing a four-year degree, and who also happens to have a strong interest in pursuing his football career. That’s the direction I’m going to take.

“We’re going to put a young man on the field that the College and that Duluth can be proud of. My players will understand that what a young man does in the classroom for four years has more to do with determining his success after college than what he does on the football field. At the same time I’m also certainly after someone who wants to be part of history at the start of our program, and who wants to be part of a very competitive program.”

Carlson will begin his duties at St. Scholastica in late spring. His first priorities, he said, are to get a player recruitment system up and running, and to start hiring his coaching staff.

Carlson is a graduate of Wauwatosa West (Wis.) High School and earned an undergraduate degree in Physical Education at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He holds a Master of Education degree in Physical Education from the University of Oklahoma.

He has been a head coach twice before, leading Wabash College for 18 years from 1983-2000, and working at Whittier (Calif.) College from 2003-2005. At Wabash, Carlson compiled a 112-57-2 record and won four conference championships as the head coach, after spending three previous seasons as the program’s Defensive Coordinator. At Whittier, he took over a team that had only 13 players in the spring of 2003 and by the 2005 season had increased the team roster to more than 80 players.

His coaching resume includes stops at Ball (Ind.) State (Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator), the University of Illinois (Director of Football Operations), the University of Evansville (Defensive Coordinator), and at Metairie Park Country Day School in New Orleans (Head Coach).

St. Scholastica decided last October to add football as its 19th varsity sport. The College expects to draw 80 to 90 men who want to play football, adding to the traditional undergraduate enrollment of 1,985. Most of St. Scholastica’s current 18 varsity sports compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC), as will the football program.

St. Scholastica’s Duluth campus has no football field; the College is exploring options for where the team will play its games.