Blooming Prairie football coach Chad Gimbel can toss out the opponents' game film from last year. With a move to a new sub-district, the Awesome Blossoms play seven teams this season that weren't on last season's regular season schedule. Rushford-Peterson is the exception. The Trojans beat BP in the season opener in 2016 and in the section semifinals. Blooming Prairie opens the season Friday, September 1, at Southland, a team they beat in the first round of sections last year.

That's not to say the teams are totally unknown, "We're kind of familiar with these teams from sections but we haven't seen them year after year," Gimbel said on Saturday's KRFO coaches show. Goodhue, Fillmore Central and Wabasha-Kellog are teams the Blossoms have run into the playoffs in recent years, but Hayfield, Winona Cotter and Mayer Lutheran are teams Blooming Prairie has not played in recent years.

BP returns plenty from last season's 7-3 team, including two-way senior linemen Mitchell Oswald, Brad Staska and Nick Thompson. Running backs Lucas Noble and Max Romeo are back. Quarterback Seth Peterson returns as well. "He had a good year last year and we expect him to take that to another level," Gimbel said.

The Awesome Blossoms don't participate in 7-on-7 leagues over the summer, but do lift and went to a team camp at North Dakota State University, "Let these kids be kids in the summer." It's hard to argue with the success BP football has enjoyed with eight appearances in the section final over the past 10 years with three state tournament trips.

Blooming Prairie football schedule for 2017, all games are 7PM kickoff.

  • Friday, September 1, at Southland
  • Friday, September 8, vs. Fillmore Central (Kat Kountry 105)
  • Friday, September 15, at Wabasha-Kellog (Kat Kountry 105)
  • Friday, September 22, vs. Winona Cotter (Kat Kountry 105)
  • Friday, September 29, at Goodhue (Kat Kountry 105)
  • Friday, October 6, vs. Hayfield
  • Friday, October 13, vs. Mayer Lutheran (Kat Kountry 105)
  • Wednesday, October 18, at Rushford-Peterson (Kat Kountry 105)

 

More From KRFO-AM