Two years after the announcement of a football program back in 2022, Calvin’s football team starts its inaugural season this fall. Last year, the Knights roster consisted of 62 players. After two years of recruiting, the Knights roster now boasts 110 players, with a goal of being around 120 in future seasons. The Knights currently have eight players slated to graduate after this season, leaving room to recruit 28 student athletes throughout the year.
With the program’s first ever season about to begin practices have looked a lot different this year than last. One key difference is the sense of urgency with installing plays and being ready for gameday. According to senior defensive back Paul VanderPloeg, the team has already caught up to where they finished last fall.
VanderPloeg, a student at Calvin before football was even announced, has seen the team grow from 10 people lifting in spring 2023 to the current 110 players. A graduate of Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville, Michigan, VanderPloeg has been waiting since his senior year of high school in 2021 to play another competitive football game. “We’ve been really looking forward to this for two years now, so that just makes games that much sweeter to us,” VanderPloeg said.
Among the changes Calvin has made in preparation for the season is a brand-new locker room with 120 lockers. “Calvin really cares about their student athletes, and they want this to work out,” said Hunter Hogan, a sophomore who plays wide receiver and defensive back.
Gauging expectations for a team’s upcoming inaugural season isn’t easy for the coaches and players. The Knights were picked to finish eighth out of eight teams in the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association Coaches Poll, a place that Coach Figg is fine with.
“That’s right where we should’ve been picked because we’ve never played a game before,” Figg told Chimes. “Those standings are only projections.”
Hogan believes the team has developed a lot over the last year and is ready to prove people wrong this season. “I think we’re just gonna shock a lot of people with how much better we are.” Hogan told Chimes.
A focus Figg has for his team this season is to improve each week and put themselves in a position to be competitive week in and week out and eventually that focus will lead to success.
“If we take care of business, we’ll win when we’re ready to win,” Figg told Chimes.
Coach Figg and his staff have been emphasizing success both on and off the field, with an emphasis on impacting the community. “We strive to be champions on the field, in the classroom, in the community and then champions of faith every single day,” Figg said.
One way the team helped the Calvin community was helping incoming freshmen and RAs with move-in day. Hogan was one of the players who helped with move in day. “I thought that it was a really nice thing we did,” Hogan said. “We got connected with the whole campus.”
The Knights travel to Mequon, Wisconsin on Saturday Sept. 14 to take on the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons.
