St. Cloud Tech Football Hungry For Wins

(KNSI) – October 16, 2019.

Feels like a long time ago. It feels like an eternity to the coaching staff at St. Cloud Tech. On that Wednesday night at home, the Tigers toppled Brainerd, 28-12. The following week they dropped a one-point game to Monticello in the first round of the playoffs. Tech has not been on the right side of the win column since.

Head coach Jon Benson is no stranger to the game. He led Apollo from 2004 until 2009 and was an assistant at Tech before getting promoted in June 2018. Benson’s first two squads both went a respectable 5-3 in the regular season.

The COVID pandemic hit the program hard. Benson says that is beginning to turn around.

“Our kids really have an idea of, “We’re done accepting this bottom-of-the-heap attitude.” These kids are fired up to get Tech football back to where Tech football’s always been, which is top of the heap.”

He says kids who had been forced inside during the lockdowns weren’t sure how to find the energy and effort needed to be successful on the gridiron.

“We always talked about x’s and o’s. We can fix your stance. We can fix your alignment. But, man…you learn to go hard and step on the gas pedal, whether that’s in football or in the classroom, or in the community — learning to work hard is something I believe in and something we impress upon our kids. And we know that as a building block if we can just develop that kind of a mindset. That no matter what happens here, we’re going to bust our tail. We can build a football team around that.”

Benson says the team has been active in the community and has a ‘good mojo’ right now.

“So, we gotta go out there and take these good vibes and we gotta hone them in on Sartell on Friday night. And hopefully, we get out there and they’re going to have their sleeves rolled up and we have a slobber knocker of a football game.”

Benson adds, “The start of the school year, building-wide, kind of goes as the football team goes. I know for a fact people are going to be impressed with how hard our kids are going to play on Friday night.”

Benson reiterates that the team is young and there are not a lot of household names yet. He says everyone should be familiar with Derrick Cox-Payton, the standout running back who was injured early last year.

“Two years ago…he was our main contributor in the backfield. He was the number one guy getting the ball, getting the rock, in the run game. Had a great season in the COVID-shortened season.”

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