Lights happy to be grinding again

It's not exactly what they planned, but the Montana State University-Northern Lights are in the heat of fall camp anyway. Literally.

Right in the middle of a heat wave in Havre, and shortly after the 2020 fall season was canceled, the Lights, of third-year head coach Andrew Rolin opened fall camp, in what will now be much more like spring ball, as Northern prepares for, and hopes to play a Frontier Conference season early next year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The news that the 2020 season had been postponed was disappointing, but Rolin said his team will respond in a positive manner, and that includes finally getting on the field for practice. Before the Lights took to the practice field earlier this week, they hadn't been together on a football field since their final game of the 2019 campaign, when they faced off against Frontier Conference champion College of Idaho. Northern did make it through winter conditioning, but, before the Lights got a chance to conduct spring ball, Northern, along with college campuses across there country were shuttered due to the emergence of the coronavirus.

So obviously, being back together is a huge step for the Lights, even if there will be no games to play this fall.

"We are practicing as if we have a game to play," Rolin said Wednesday. "And it's a lot of fun. The guys are so excited to have helmets and pads on, they're so happy to be out on the field hitting each other, competing, and bonding as a team. They've missed this. We all have. So we're going to really enjoy being out there these two weeks."

Bonding, coming together as a team is a huge part of the next two weeks, too.

"It's big from that aspect," Rolin said. "We have a great team attitude, and we have cultivated great leadership on this team. And we're seeing that come out in these first few practices. You need to be on the field together, not just to progress and get better, but also to gel as a team. We've really missed that. So it's really fun to see the team coming together right now. I'm just having a blast coaching these guys."

Of course, getting better is also paramount. Rolin said fall camp will consist of just two weeks, then they'll take a break before resuming practices for at least a portion of the remainder of the semester.

"We'll take a break after these first two weeks," Rolin said. "And then it will depend on when we can be in our new stadium. When that becomes available for us to practice on, we'll do more this fall. Because ultimately, we've got to prepare for the spring."

Indeed, the Lights will do everything in their power to get ready for a season they hope will come in a matter of months, and that includes getting to conduct workouts on their brand new stadium turf sometime this fall. Until then though, Rolin and the Lights are keeping it simple, while simply being glad to be playing football again.

"This is what I was made to do," Rolin said. "I coach football. That's what I do. So this week has been a blast for me, and for our kids. I know we're not playing games right now, but we're out there practicing and competing. And we understand that a lot of other programs around the country aren't doing that right now. So we're blessed. We're blessed to have these two weeks of fall camp, and we're going to make the most out of it."