Why Wayzata's Football Team is Headed to Iowa

Most coaches, players and fans don’t mind an opportunity for rest during a tough football season. A bye week can provide some much needed time to take care of lingering bumps and bruises, study more for the following week or implement new schemes into a team’s game plan.

Most teams grab this opportunity.

Not Wayzata High School.

The Trojan football program has decided to take advantage of a different opportunity: electing to travel to unfamiliar territory to take on an opponent they have never played and that most of their parents and fans have never heard of.

Tonight's game against Carmel Catholic—which head football coach Brad Anderson said is comparable to a Totino Grace or Cretin Durham Hall—came about when both teams posted online that they wanted to fill a hole in their schedules.

It’s pretty common, according to Anderson. When a team cannot find a team near home to matchup against, they start looking to states around them. In this case, the Trojans found a private Catholic school from Illinois, and they’ll meet them halfway on Friday in Iowa, at the University of Dubuque. 

“We talk about improving day by day and week by week,” head coach Brad Anderson said. “We want to be tested before playoffs, and we look at this as an assessment in order to get better as a team.”

The team will be tested in more ways than one. Five hours on a bus with excited and rowdy high school boys may force any coach to roll out the window onto a busy freeway.

It will also do a mental number on the players themselves.

One of the challenges, according to Anderson, will be getting into the mental state to play a big football game after sitting on a bus all day.

“You love playing at home because it allows you to get into a comfortable routine,” Anderson said. “So when we get down there it’s going to be about developing some kind of routine before the game.”

The players will be out of school for most of the day, which is another challenge for players in catching up with their school work. Anderson also hopes there are no major injuries during a game so far away from family members.

But those are only the off-field difficulties posed in front of the Wayzata football team. After developing a routine and preparing to play between the chalk lines, they have to face a tough option offense.

This requires even more discipline from the players on the defensive side of the ball. This kind of on-going discipline needed throughout the day would be difficult for any squad. It’s no wonder why the coaching staff sees it as a measuring apparatus for progress.

But with challenges come ample opportunities.

The team—players and coaches alike—will get to know each other better off the field. Getting to know the person that is battling with you on the field can only make the team better overall, according to Anderson.

The team will also have the opportunity grow on the football field.

The Trojans will be facing an offensive scheme they rarely see, which will challenge both players and coaches. The game will also be a test for the offense when trying to establish a solid running game. Carmel Catholic poses a strong front seven that is tough against teams who like to carry the football.