Bellarmine's inaugural season of sprint football is underway, first game is this fall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's college football with a twist.

It's called sprint football, where players are limited to 178 pounds with a weigh-in each week. Bellarmine is one of the charter members of the Midwest Sprint Football League that begins play this fall.

Harold Davis was the longtime coach at DeSales High School, where he won a pair of state championships before accepting this challenge at Bellarmine.

And the first practice has begun. #bellarminefootball ⁦@BUKnights⁩ ⁦@WDRBNews⁩ pic.twitter.com/uYcctPicNP
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He brought along a number of his assistant coaches from DeSales and said he was both excited and nervous to get started with the first practice Tuesday at Bellarmine's Newburg Sports Park.

"We feel honestly that it's still football," said Davis. "It's played the same that everyone's used to. Getting used to the speed with the linemen being smaller and quicker, that's going to be an adjustment.

The weight limit is designed to make the game more fast paced and safer. A number of players will likely have to play different positions than they played in high school and many will have to play on both offense and defense. But it gives the majority of them an opportunity they may not have had otherwise had.

Bellarmine sprint football practice — The Bellarmine sprint football team practices ahead of it's first season as a program.
ERIC CRAWFORD

"I was like 'sprint football, what's that?'" said DJ Griffin a 140-pound freshman from Tampa, Florida. "It was like weight class and I was like 'OK, so I won't be going against people like 20 times bigger than me, 30 times bigger than me.'"

"Any possible way I could play then I was going to play," said freshman Joshua Givens, who played at Central High School. "And when I got in contact with Bellarmine I was just real excited."

"I was like it's still the game of football," Griffin said. "I love football. Why not? And also get a good education where I'm at too."

They will play six regular season games, followed by a post-season tournament. The first game is Sept. 17 at Midway University.

"A lot of them in there are just saying they'll play wherever they want us to play," said Davis. "We have guys that have transferred, some haven't played for two or three years. They're just excited to get a helmet back on and start playing again."