Sometimes there are bumps on the road to the next level.
When Cochrane High School Cobras 2014 grad Dale Cummings left Aug. 4 for Montana to start his university football career, he was pumped. He was joining a North American Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) football program at Montana State University-Northern in Havre. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound offensive lineman was looking forward to banging heads on the gridiron at training camp.
Unfortunately for Cummings, and his MSU-Northern Lights teammates, heads were banging at the university’s athletic faculty. The school suspended head coach Mark Samson Aug. 11 with pay, pending an investigation for undisclosed infractions. By Aug. 14, the 11-year Lights head coach had “resigned,” replaced on an interim basis by defensive co-ordinator Jake Eldridge. The school has a nation-wide call out for a new head coach.
The whole thing left Cummings scratching his head just a week into his university football career.
“It was a little different for me – for all the freshmen, when we had the meeting about it. It was a shock to everybody,” Cummings related. “I feel like we got over it pretty quickly. It’s still in the back of our minds. But we have to stay together as a team. We’re part of a big family.
“I feel like, in the end, we’ll come out on top.”
The former head coach had, apparently, deposited some training-camp registration fees into a non-university bank account. Samson said his “intent was not malicious in nature” and that the funds were used to pay coaches assisting with MSU-Northern’s football training camp. The account has been closed and the university has all account records and money remaining.
For Cummings, and his new team, it’s about getting back to the game. The Lights open their NAIA Frontier Conference season Aug. 30 at Montana Tech in Butte.
“All the coaches we have, the coach who’s taken over the team, knows everybody. He knows what to do,” Cummings said of interim head coach Eldridge, who played for Samson at MSU-Northern from 2004-08. “He knows what the expectations are. I feel like he’ll do a great job.”
Lining up at left guard, the all-star high school offensive lineman who also played for the Cochrane Lions is getting comfortable in his Lights uniform, punching holes in the defence for running backs Zach McKinley, Mario Gabatto and Hunter Croff during practice. The team is currently on a two-a-day training schedule leading up to opening day.
“It’s awesome. The level of competition down here is just insane. All the guys have been there. All the O-line from last year are back. They have high expectations for the freshmen. You have to go 120 per cent every time you get a chance to go in a do a play. Do your hardest on every drill. Just the speed on everything is a lot to take in.”
But Cummings is confident he can help the Lights shine.
“I fit right in. I’m just as big as any of the guys. We were doing one-on-ones the other day and I thought I did fairly well. I’m just as big as all the seniors. When I first got down here, I didn’t know what I was thinking. I was really nervous for the first practice. Once we got out there I was like, ‘All right, I can do this.’ I’m just as big as these guys and everything like that.”
With the team’s bumps on the road in the rearview, Cummings is looking ahead to leaving lumps on opposing defenders when the Lights go on for MSU-Northern’s Aug. 30 opener in Butte.
