Duluth East Enters Football Season With New Look

Aiming for first winning season since 2020

DULUTH, Minn.- The Duluth East Greyhounds haven’t had a winning football team since the shortened 2020 COVID season. The freshmen from that team are now seniors, hoping to get their program back to its former glory.

The Greyhounds will have a lot of fresh faces taking the field on their season opener. Head Coach Joe Hietala estimates he has about eight new starters on both sides of the ball. While he’s been impressed
with his team’s energy through the first week of practice, he’s hoping it will all translate on the opening kickoff.

“I really like the cohesiveness of our group, they’re a fun group to work with.” says Hietala. “Their disposition’s been outstanding, so I’m excited to see what they can bring to the field, but we’re learning that right now. A lot of the guys that are stepping into these roles were part-time players in those roles last year as well, so they do have some experience. When the lights come on Friday night, everything changes a little bit, so we’ll see.”

Meanwhile, Coach Hietala’s players are aware they need to step up in order to post a better record from the past two seasons. Senior captains Nathan Kiergaard and Chase Baumgarten believe that keeping a positive attitude will be a key factor towards their success late into the season.

“I think last year, we kind of hurt ourselves knocking each other down and kind of just negative attitudes, nothing good.” says Kiergaard, a starting linebacker for the Greyhounds. “So I think this year, a lot of picking each other up and positive attitudes are going to help us out a lot.”

“We might not have the biggest boys this year, but they’ve got a lot of grit…More than I’ve ever seen in all my four years.” says Baumgarten, a 6’3″ defensive end. “We had some gaps in our defense, and there’s a lot of boys that are stepping up to the job, which I’m really proud of.”

Duluth East opens their season at home against Esko on August 31.