As the SMB Wolfpack football team finishes up another undefeated season, the spotlight remains on members from Minnehaha Academy. However, despite their few numbers, members from the Blake community have quietly put together an impactful season.

James Killea 20, attributes the Blake players’ success to their mindset. “The majority of it (Blake players’ mindset) is just the next-man-up mentality. We need to be ready to play multiple positions, so all of us need to be ready to step up when needed.” And step up they did; Bobby Chancellor ’19 finished with 2 rushing touchdowns and 32 tackles, Luke Sigulski ’22 started all 8 games at right tackle as a freshman, and Theo Crosby ’20 made 93% of kicks during the regular season.

Blake only has 11 members on Varsity, but Killea says that this seemingly low participation isn’t noticeable. “It is really interesting because Blake is a minority on the team (based on numbers), but when we go to practice we don’t care about where other people go to school. But I do think at school it makes us tighter as a whole.”

Elijah Short ’21, a starting defensive back on SMB, corroborates Killea’s statement; “The Blake kids, since we are a much smaller portion of the team, have to stick together. The fact that we had to stick together helped me bond with people I had never talked to before and created these friendships.”

SMB opened their playoff run on Saturday, October 27th at Aamoth Stadium, winning against Orono 19-15. The team will play in the section finals against Benilde on November 2.