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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Fighting Scots Looking to Build On Late-Season Momentum

Dustin Sheppard enters his senior campaign with 2,685 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns.

A strong finish to the 2007 season, featuring four wins over its last six and one of the two losses coming in a game in which it outgained an eventual quarterfinalist in the NCAA Div. III Football Championship, has The College of Wooster optimistic about this fall’s campaign, as the Fighting Scots will look to recapture their status as one of the perennial contenders for the North Coast Athletic Conference championship.

“We paid the price for inexperience early in 2007. After losing 27 seniors from the 2006 campaign, many of whom were three- or four-year players, we got a baptism under fire due to a number of first-year starters and a very challenging schedule. The good news is that they are not first-year starters in 2008,” remarked Wooster head coach Mike Schmitz.

Behind the leadership of 18 seniors, the Scots improved dramatically during the second half of 2007, even earning victories by 52 and 36 points the final two games, which led Schmitz to say, “Of all the teams we’ve had here, I’m about as proud of that (one) as any. We found ourselves in a place we hadn’t been as a program. It would’ve been easy for that team to go in a different direction, but our seniors would not allow it to happen. They kept fighting, clawing, and scratching, and we became a much better team.”

“Now, we have a lot of people back,” he continued. “We still have a long way to go, but we showed what we’re made of, we gained valuable experience, and our expectations for 2008 are very high.”

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