612 Recruiting Report: Evan Knofczynski (MPLS Washburn-2021)
Playing football for a Minneapolis Public School is no easy task. The game of football itself is hard..it’s physical, aggressive, and not for the faint of heart. When you combine that with some of the issues that are unique to…
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Continue ReadingPlaying football for a Minneapolis Public School is no easy task. The game of football itself is hard..it’s physical, aggressive, and not for the faint of heart. When you combine that with some of the issues that are unique to the Minneapolis and St. Paul Public School football team’s – such as underfunding, inadequate facilities, unsupportive administration, & low participation numbers to name a few – things become significantly more difficult for a student athlete in MSP to play the world’s greatest game than it should be. These are issues I ran across as a prep in the early 2010’s at MPLS Southwest, and these same issues still remain for today’s Minneapolis athletes.
Evan Knofczynski
Evan
Knofczynski
LB
Minneapolis Washburn | 2021
State
MN
– the feature of today’s Northstar Football News “Recruiting Report” – is a 6’2, 230 lb. DE/OLB from MPLS Washburn who has had to overcome these obstacles plus help rebuild an old Minneapolis powerhouse to its former glory from basically the ground up. Having played a ton of snaps through his first three years as a Miller while acting as a leader and example to rebuild a winning culture shows a ton of physical and mental toughness that are very important traits to look at when recruiting potential college players. Knofczynski has the size, strength, intangibles, and fortitude of a prospect that could be extremely useful in turning around a college program, or reinforcing a winning culture in an existing successful team. Knofczynski is the total package, and the 2021 grad was kind enough to give Northstar Football News some of his time to discuss with us what being a leader at Washburn has been like for him, expectations for the 2020 season and some big games within it, what he’s looking for in a potential college, and more. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! Junior SZN
NFN: Hello and thank you for your time, Evan. Please begin by sharing with our readers a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? When did you begin playing football? What do you love about the game? Also, please include your measurables.
Knofczynski: My name is Evan Knofczynski Evan Knofczynski LB Minneapolis Washburn | 2021 State MN and I’m from Minneapolis Minnesota. I started playing football when I was in 3rd grade, so about 9-10 years old and I didn’t start earlier because soccer was my first fall sport.
#50But when I saw my other school friends going to football practice the same time I had soccer practice I knew that next season I wanted to play football. Also the other sport I play is baseball and have played that since I could remember. I like playing football because it’s a second world to me and kind of like a place where I can just be myself and let out my feelings with pads. I’m 6’2 and weigh 230 lbs and my 40 is 4.9, my clean- 225, bench- 225, squat- 405. My dad is also a physical trainer and has a fitness studio in downtown Minneapolis called Kofi Core and has been around for over 14 years, and I go there to train on the off season for football and baseball.”
NFN: How was the 2018 season for you and the Washburn Millers?
Knofczynski: “The highlights of the season in 2018 were probably seeing most of our seniors going to college playing DI or DII football and the lowlights were playing the teams we knew had more experience than us, and us losing a majority of the games my sophomore year but still having a fun season. I learned that you can’t take things for granted and that if you get the chance take it because you may never know what may be on the other side. The season personally was a starting point for me playing High school football because that’s when I started to actually start in games and contribute to the team on and off the field.”
NFN: What were your expectations going into 2019? What were some things y’all worked on in the offseason? Also, what do you like about the Washburn Millers program?
Knofczynski: “My expectations were high even though we only had 2-3 starting seniors and a team full of juniors. Most of the juniors I’ve played with like Nyle Dickel Nyle Dickel LB Minneapolis Washburn | 2021 State MN , I’ve been playing with since I started playing in 3rd grade and some of these kids that I met freshman year I’ve grown a close bond with and started working with everyone above, below and beside me in age to better ourselves during the off-season. We needed work on our bonding as a team since some of the player on our team came from over north and we also were just still getting used to our 3 year old weight room and needed some getting used to and settling in. What I like about the Washburn Miller football program is that we get to work with the future of the program during the summer and also get to have them all come out to see us play and get inspired to be the next wave of football athletes.”
#50 with the tackle.NFN: Now get into details of the 2019 season? What were some big games?
Knofczynski: “Our first games of last year went really well, we won games we weren’t expecting to win – for example the St. Paul Johnson game. And how they beat us the year before 67-0 and us beating them was a big impact on our team morale going into the next couple of games. Another big game was the Southwest game and to be honest we had more people at the Southwest game then at our actual homecoming against North. And as for our only section game against Mahtomedi we were going into the game knowing they were going to be a tough opponent, the thing was that they can out running a entirely different defense then our quarterback was used to but that was no excuse and also we made mistakes that didn’t need to be made, like jumping offsides and not talking with our pads only.”
NFN: What can we expect from the Millers and yourself in 2020?
Knofczynski: “The 2020 season will for sure be one of the best seasons for Washburn Football in my opinion because our team is all seniors with great experience and bonding. We will need to improve on not getting down on ourselves early in the game and not being able to put our heads back in the game. The Southwest game this year will for sure be a very huge game for all of us and I think our homecoming will be a very big one too since we haven’t won a Homecoming in 3 years. I think since we have a lot of great raw talent that can’t be taught but also hard working players as well, that we’ll be a good contender for the Minnesota State Championship this upcoming season, it will be a huge jump and something that’ll be out of our comfort zones for sure but we’ll be getting ready for anything.”
NFN: What’s up with recruiting? What are some schools you’re interested in and what are you looking for in a potential college?
Knofczynski: “ I’m looking at colleges right now and trying to reach out to coaches I’m interested in playing for. I would love to go DI for college football or baseball but if not I would love to find a great DII to play at as well, I’m trying to find colleges that have good nursing and law programs and I’m also looking into sociology or sports medicine as well because a lot of my family is physical therapists and physical trainers.”
Stay tuned for more on Knofczynski and the Washburn Millers as we begin to gear up for the 2020 season.