WORTHINGTON -- The Minnesota West football program added to its stable of local talent by signing 10 players to national letters of intent Thursday at the Student Services Center.
Ray Landberg, Adam Feller, Alex Solem, Andrew Berg, Zach Traphagen, B.J. Naab, Matt Cowdin, Ben Collin, Chris Aggen and Billy Anderson all inkled their letters as head football coach Jeff Linder looked in approval. Linder added that the signings marked a big day for the program.
"We are proud to have you be a part of our family," Linder said. "It's a great day for you. It's a great day for Minnesota West football."
Of the players at Thursday's signing, all but one is from are from Worthington. The one is Anderson, who calls Adrian home and said he knew right away he wanted to go to Minnesota West.
"I wanted to go somewhere I would probably play and be (close to) home," said Anderson.
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Playing close to home is also an added bonus for Aggen, who said it didn't take much convincing from Linder to get him to sign on.
"I pretty much knew I was going to come here," Aggen said.
For Cowdin, staying close to home was something that didn't necessarily seem like a given before he decided to attend West.
"For the longest time, I thought I'd never be staying at home. Lately, I've been liking it here a lot."
It also doesn't hurt that the Bluejays football team has had as much success in the last two seasons, reaching the Minnesota Community College Conference title game each time. Sustaining the success will be an easier task than trying to create it from scratch.
"That was a big reason why a lot of decided to come out here," said Traphagen. "We knew how good they are now. They have a tradition of winning all the time.
"We hope we can finally jump that last hurdle."
