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RELEASE DATE: 10/05/07 Click Below For Video on President
Loeschke and Tom Elsasser Talking About Sprint Football FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mansfield to add sprint football for 2008 season
The announcement kicked-off Mansfield’s 2007 Homecoming celebrations. “I’m very pleased to announce that football will return to our campus in 2008,” said President Loeschke at a press conference held at Corey Creek Golf Club before alums and students. “Sprint football allows us to compete against some of the most prestigious universities in the nation while remaining affordable and complementing our core mission. It will provide a wonderful opportunity for many young men to continue their education while also pursuing their passion to play football and enjoying the leadership opportunities that come with both.” Mansfield dropped its 115-year old football program last November after the completion of the 2006 season because of a projected university budget deficit. Mansfield was 0-10 that season. Mansfield competes at the NCAA Division II level and is a charter member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. It will retain those affiliations for its other 13 sports. Sprint football is the same as regular football with the exception of a maximum weight restriction of 172 pounds. Mansfield will compete in the more than 70-year old Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL) currently comprised of Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the United States Military Academy at West Point (Army) and the United States Naval Academy (Navy). Mansfield will be the only public institution in the nation to offer sprint football. Unlike the NCAA Division II level, the CSFL does not allow athletic scholarship for sprint football. However players would be eligible for academic or need based scholarships that are offered to the general student body. Last year Mansfield’s NCAA Division II football program cost approximately $500,000 to operate. The 2008 projected sprint football budget is less than $155,000. Mansfield expects to begin a national search for a full-time sprint football coach in the next two weeks and have that person on staff by late November. Mansfield also announced that Tom
Elsasser, the university’s all-time winningest football coach, will
volunteer as the Director of Football Operations to help implement the sprint
football program. Elsasser is currently coaching high school football at Passaic
High School in New Jersey and will assume his role at Mansfield when his
commitment at Passaic is completed. Comments from others on Mansfield Sprint Football
“The Collegiate Sprint Football League is both pleased and excited to welcome Mansfield University as the newest member of the organization that was founded in 1934. We look forward to many years of spirited competition with the Mansfield Mountaineers. It offers great opportunity to Mansfield and its future football players.” Stephen P. Erber, Associate Athletic Director, Cornell University, and CSFL Commissioner.
“Sprint Football represents the best of what intercollegiate athletics is all about, and we are very pleased that Mansfield will be joining the League. Our young men are truly playing for the love of the game of football and the love of competition, and they are tremendous leaders of and ambassadors for our Universities.” Terry Cullen, Head Sprint Football Coach, Cornell University.
“At Mansfield, sprint football is our football program and that’s exactly how we are going to treat it. Come kickoff in 2008 we going to buckle our chinstraps, the band’s going to play and the cheerleaders cheer. I can promise you that our players and our coaches are going to do everything to win every game they play.” “We’re offering opportunity, we’re offering access. It’s not just football -- you have the opportunity to get on a bus and going to play at West Point and you have the opportunity to get on the bus and go and play at Princeton. Our kids will have the opportunity to play against – like themselves – some of the future leaders of this country.”
Tom Elsasser, Mansfield University Director of Football Operation
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MANSFIELD
– Mansfield University President Dr. Maravene Loeschke announced
today that the university would start a sprint football program and compete in
the Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL) starting in the 2008 season.