Kari Gibb/MDN Minot State University linebackers work on float drills on day one of the 2024-2025 football season. The Beavers have 24 days to game one against Valley City State on Thursday, August 29, at Herb Parker stadium.

Since the ancient days of the Greeks, the fall season or equinox has been celebrated. British Isles peoples have given thanks at fall harvest festivals since pagan times. Harvest festivals traditionally were held on the Sunday nearest the Harvest Moon.

Many archaeologists say a number of prehistoric sites were used by these peoples to track the position of the sun and predict equinoxes and solstices. Sites like Stonehenge – one of the first stadiums ever built – are locations that were possibly established to track, honor and celebrate the fall and the harvest.

Early European settlers took many of these traditions with them to America. These traditional festivals formed the basis of American Thanksgiving, among other seasonal activities. The most modern fall festival that captivates nearly all of America is the starting of football season.

Much like the celebration of the harvest, football season celebrates the hard off season work of athletes and coaches and hopes the efforts of the summer on the game fields across the country.

“We had roughly 70 players participate in the second half of summer workouts,” said Minot State University (MSU) head football coach, Ian Shields. “With the dedication of the athletes, we are excited to start the season and put our best game effort in front of the fans.”

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate College league has 13 schools that put football teams into play. The league has strict rules on contact with the players by coaches over the course of the summer and in the fall as the teams return for the 2024-2025 season.

The MSU players will work through several sessions of fall camp without pads and focus on fundamentals such as stance, step and movement. Conditioning and flexibility are also a foundation of the first days of practice.

As the student-athletes fill out schedule forms and iron out housing status, the fall practices will begin to include pads, full contact and implementation of the fundamental offense, defense and special teams schemes.

The final stages of fall camp will be the competition of student-athletes for starting positions as well as preparing for the first opponent of the year, Valley City State.

The countdown has begun. There are 24 days, or 576 hours, 34,560 minutes or 2,073,600 seconds until kickoff at the Herb Parker stadium on Thursday, August 29.