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MITCHELL — On Sunday, the community of Mitchell helped welcome the class of 2022 and their families for Dakota Wesleyan football at Blarney’s Sports Bar and Grill. The signing party was held prior to the DWU women’s basketball game at the Corn Palace and feature many of the 35 new signees.
Easton Millar is the lone quarterback recruit in this year’s class – and will graduate from Redfield High School in the spring. The 6-1, 180-pound incoming freshman was a two-year starter for the Redfield Pheasants, which went 5-4 this past fall. Millar talks about his decision to come to DWU
“When I came on my visit here, I loved what the guys had with each other,” Millar said. “I felt like I fit in right away. There’s a good group of guys, and I just like the campus and liked how the team looked. I thought I would fit well here.”
Joe Van Overschelde was an All-American honorable mention at the AA level for the Mitchell Kernels this year as a linebacker and will continue to play his home football games at Joe Quintal Field.
Van Overschelde hopes to be the next of a long line of local Mitchell products to produce big numbers at DWU – and he mentioned a connection he has with outgoing senior linebacker All American and Mitchell native Cody Reichelt.
“He (Reichelt) was a baseball coach of mine for a little bit,” Van Overschelde said. “That was obviously between his summers playing at Dakota Wesleyan. Max Schoenfelder is another one that I kind of thought of … and obviously Spencer Neugebauer was always another big guy to look up to.”
Finally, John Pica is a senior lineman at Dell Rapid and is coming off a 9B state championship in the fall, in which he starred on both sides of the ball. Pica was a two-time all state guard at 6-4 and 240 pounds and said he can’t wait to get to work as soon as he can.
“From what I know, the freshman have the option to come down after the 4th of July, so I probably will come down (then) and just be with the freshman all throughout July so that come August, I’ll be ready.”
The Tigers will open the 2022 season on Thursday, August 25 on the road against Dakota State.