Carlson compiles class that has six players from Indiana, eight from Illinois.

VALPARAISO - From the moment he accepted the position as the new Valparaiso head football coach in January, Dale Carlson started to lay out his recruiting plan.

Refusing to be deterred by the non-scholarship nature of the Crusaders’ program, Carlson and his staff combed the nation in search of players to join the roster in August.

As the dust has settled from four long months of work, Carlson announced a 33-member freshman class for next season that includes players from 12 states.

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“There is no question that we were behind the 8-ball with our late start,” Carlson said. “We had a lot of kids that had already narrowed down their choices, but I think we did a pretty good job of addressing most of our needs.”

One of the biggest needs for the Crusaders over the last several years has been a quarterback and Carlson is pleased with the three freshmen he has coming in the fall, including Eric Lemon, a 6-foot-5 signal caller from Stevensville, Mich.

“One of the things I told our returning four quarterbacks in the spring was that nothing has been decided yet in terms of a starter and they could end up competing with one of the three freshmen,” Carlson said. “Eric Lemon is tall, has a strong arm and chose Valpo over Georgetown. Eric Hoffman can run the football a little bit and Robbie Buss played in the spread offense at Elkhart Central. Everyone knows we want to throw the ball.”

In addition to getting Lemon to spurn Georgetown, Carlson is ecstatic that Francis Baker Jr. will be a Crusader in the fall. Baker, a 5-foot-10 linebacker from Lsuby, Md., chose Valparaiso over Bucknell.

“We want to be recruiting against the Ivy League and the Patriot League for players,” Carlson said. “Baker wanted engineering and we were able to get a very good football player because we have a very good academic program.”

The lone Region athlete to join the Crusaders this fall will be Highland defensive lineman Bryan Glover. With his first recruiting class under his belt, Carlson is eager to add more players from Northwest Indiana in the coming years.

“We had some kids come and visit, but Valparaiso hasn’t had a lot of success recently and quite honestly, the toughest kids to recruit were kids in our own backyard,” Carlson said. “Our coaching staff has been or will be in every area high school during the spring recruiting period and we want to work to start building those relationships now.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Valparaiso’s 2010 Recruiting Class
* 33 players from 12 different states
* 16 offensive players, including three quarterbacks
* 14 defensive players, including Highland’s Bryan Glover (DL)
* 3 specialists, including two kickers

Crusaders add 33 players to football program
BY PAUL OREN - Northwest Indiana Times Correspondent
http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/article_c552fc7e-f88d-5518-a327-aef4165de4d8.html