FOOTBALL'S IN THE AIR ... Wide receiverJesse Parthemore looks back for a pass while defensive back Brandon Porter closes the gap during Wilmington College's spring football game Friday at Williams Stadium.

Scrimmage culminates WC
spring football season

Quakers to open season Sept. 2 at Mt. St. Joseph

April 28, 2006

Poise. Class. Character. If you listen to Wilmington College head football coach Barry Wulf for any period of time, chances are good you'll hear those three words with echoing frequency.

Wulf and the Quakers brought their poise, class and character to Williams Stadium Friday for the spring football game, the newest athletic tradition on the Wilmington College campus.

Players went through a series of drills and challenges, then the offense and defense squared off for a controlled scrimmage that lacked pads but not intensity.

The game culminated a month of spring football that left Wulf optimistic about the future.

"We had an awesome spring," said Wulf, who will enter his second year as coach of the Quakers this fall. "I still maintain that we're a better football team right now than when we walked off the football field at Capital at the end of last season. We still have a long way to go, but we've got a great nucleus, great senior leadership and I'm excited about this summer, our recruiting class and next fall."

Wulf said one of the primary objectives of the spring season is to enhance the cerebral processes involved with playing all phases of the game.

"We really worked on the mental game," Wulf said. "We had to eliminate the physicality because we don't have the pads. Coming out of last season we needed this as another step to get mentally better at our defense, our offense and our special teams — and we accomplished that goal. We know we'll come ready to play physical, like Wilmington always does. What we have to do is get the mindset, the mental aspects and the technique."

The Quakers open the 2006 season Sept. 2 at the College of Mount Saint Joseph.