Jimmies bring in 36 players in 2023 football recruiting class – Jamestown Sun

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown University has announced its new class of new Jimmies football players. The team brings in 36 players from nine states.

“The talent level is very high and the success of our high school recruiting class is very high,” Jimmies head coach Brian Mistro said. “So I think the biggest strength that this class is going to have is that they’re winning. These are guys who are going to come in and they like to compete and they don’t like to lose. We’ve recruited a lot of state championship teams, guys who were all-state players, guys who are used to winning.

Five of the players joining the Jimmies’ recruiting class know what it’s like to win a championship at Jamestown – former Jamestown High School players Ethan and Preston Gall, Jackson Walters, Payton Hochhalter and Preston Kroeber. The class includes 14 total players from North Dakota.

“(Being local) also played a big part, knowing that I can be home and have my family with me,” Hochhalter said.

Thanks to his local presence, Hochhalter has the opportunity to train with the Jimmies who he says will start this summer.

“We will have plans,” Hochhalter said. “I know the coach has already talked to me about having throwing sessions and training with Ryder (Weischedel). I’m going to do film studies with Coach Chaleen, so that’s probably what I’ll do before the beginning of autumn.

With the Jimmies bringing in six running backs, Mistro said he’s looking forward to moving them around on offense.

“We wanted to make sure we had a good number of running backs because those guys are so versatile in our offense and what we do,” Mistro said. “Having them play the slots sometimes and having them in the backfield and having multiple guys in the backfield going forward. We wanted to bring a good class of that and I believe we did.

Despite the Jimmies losing punter Izaak Myles, Mistro said they don’t have a punter currently hired and will be working through spring camp to replace Myles.

Incoming linebacker Jacob Van Lith has family ties to the school as his uncle is UJ Hall of Fame wrestler Tom Boerger.

“(Boerger) always bragged about the quality of UJ and his experiences there,” Van Lith said. “He bragged about the quality of the coaching staff and the quality of a guy Mistro was. He was spot on with it, everything he talked about lived up to the hype. It will be nice to have someone in Jamestown to cheer me on and get an “in” for certain things.

Van Lith said he could play linebacker and safety inside and out and would do whatever he needed to to help the team win. Starting Feb. 1, Van Lith will join a packed room of linebackers, but said he’s ready to compete for playing time.

“The competition aspect will be a lot of fun,” Van Lith said. “I hope I can finish my role, my goal is to be part of the travel team.”

Mistro said recruiting for this class began in the spring of 2022 and continued through signing day Feb. 1.

“We had 15 junior days with about six or seven guys on each of those visits,” Mistro said. “We had a camp this summer, we had several visits during the season for game day visits. We had seven official visits over the winter. To be honest with you, it’s not more or less at any time, it’s constant now. There is no recruiting season, rather it is a recruiting year. We’ve really been going there since last March with this class.

Mistro did not name any player or group of players in that class as day one impact players, but said he hoped they would all be able to find their role and play well.

As of Feb. 1, the Jimmies have five quarterbacks on the roster and add two more in Hochhalter and James Lewis. One of the callers Hochhalter and Lewis will be competing against is former Blue Jay Ty Monson.

“It’s going to be really nice to know that he was ahead of me at some point in high school,” Hochhalter said. “It’s going to be fun learning from him and pushing each other in training and seeing what the other can do.”