The Future Of Red Knight Football

Parker Skelton

The sun shines on the bright Red Knight head of the football field. Next year, for first time in over 20 years, a new coach will fight for victory with the Red Knights.

With the retirement of previous Red Knight head football coach, Jon Hanks, the team is looking for a coach to lead them into the oncoming season. The applications have been sent out, and there have been many candidates who qualified for the job. However, a candidate has been chosen to be the new head coach next year. His name is Sean McMenomy; he has been a head coach at four different schools and made an impact on programs along the way.

BSM Athletic Director Jerry Pettinger said McMenomy worked with the program at Minneapolis Southwest in the Twin Cities as well as helped bring success to De La Salle’s football program, ending with 62 wins and 17 losses. “He rebuilt the Minneapolis Southwest program, had a real successful stint at De La Salle where they were 62 and 17 at his time there,” Pettinger said.

He also coached at Catholic schools in North Carolina and Oregon before moving back to the Twin Cities with his family. “I think a person with Catholic school experience is gonna be a good fit for us,” Pettinger said.

The BSM football team seems to be in good shape, and Pettinger doesn’t seem worried. Numbers are important, and BSM’s football team doesn’t lack the numbers to be successful on the field. “I think we have a good foundation in the program, so I think things are in good shape… with all the programs here at BSM, we gotta get numbers, we gotta get kids out, and I think he is going to do that, and we are going to have a lot of success in the future,” Pettinger said.

But like any new coach, there will be changes to the playbook as well as how things are run and challenges that the program will face going forward. Sophomore, Antonio Fondren, is a returning player for the Red Knights, and he is hopeful to see how McMenomy will build his team. Fondren. “I heard from my previous coach that he is a decent guy, I don’t know much but I’m hopeful and looking forward to meeting him,” Fondren, who originally played his freshman year of football for the Islanders of De La Salle, said.

McMenomy will be meeting with the new class of football players on Friday.