Battle Ready

When you’re used to being “the guy,” it’s often demoralizing having to stand from amongst teammates along the sidelines waiting for your number to be called.
For former Blooming Prairie High School and current Winona State University quarterback John Rumpza, it was an opportunity two years in the making.
With the Warriors losing the school’s all-time leading passer in Jack Nelson to graduation and a possible future in the NFL, the talks of the program’s spring practices revolved around just who was going to be the new signal caller. With reports coming out of Winona that Rumpza is locked in a battle for the top spot with Darren Beenken from Farmington, Minnesota, for the vast majority of spring practices, the former Blossoms’ head coach Chad Gimbal noted there’s no surprise to hear of his former player’s success.
“I’m not surprised at all,” noted Gimbal in an interview Thursday. “I had total belief that he could play at the next level; without a doubt.” 
Gimbal did note however that coming from a Class A school such as Blooming Prairie to a Division II college program brought adjustments and even a new learning curve for the 6-foot, 6-inch signal caller. The two that brought a little bit of a struggle was his mechanics from under center and setting the blocking scheme.
Before joining Winona State’s version of the West Coast Offense, Rumpza never operated from under center. During his days as a Blossom, all his time spent on the field was in the shotgun, meaning that vital quarterback-center exchange becomes more complex that what it actually should be. 
“It’s definitely a change when you have to go ahead and start getting a deeper drop once you’re not working out of the gun anymore,” noted Rumpza. “Overall, I don’t think my mechanics have changed a lot, it’s just getting your body to move quicker and going through your progressions much faster.” 
Gimbal said that a difference from Winona State University offense to the one ran in Blooming Prairie is that the as a Blossom, quarterbacks weren’t responsible for calling the line protection on passing plays, the running back was. All that changed when he signed to be a Warrior. He mentioned that Rumpza said to him the reason the quarterbacks call the protection is to keep the peace essentially.
“They do it that way so that if he gets sacked, it’s on him and he’s not mad at the linemen,” he added.
Nearly two years later, after taking a partial scholarship with the Warriors, he seemed to of found his zone. Despite being listed as the No. 2 quarterback on the roster’s two-deep for the scrimmage, Rumpza found himself operating with the first-team offense more often than not.
That’s when the work of the last two years began to show.
To someone outside the program, it appeared that he called all the protections correctly as he was provided with a more than ample pocket for much of his passing attempts. Although, the one thing that stood out above the rest was his ability to command the squad.
Walking up to the line, it was easy to see why Rumpza is in the running to be the starting quarterback. Pulling off his best Peyton Manning impression, the 6-foot, 6-inch gun slinger would bark commands at the line of scrimmage, often pointing to the opposing defenses’ linebacker and saying, “40 is the MIKE!” – Usually a precursor on how to set the protection for that given play.
Despite the official stats only being kept by members of the Winona State University coaching staff for grading purposes, Warriors head coach Tom Sawyer said that his potential starter has come a long way since joining the program.
“Tremendous amount of growth he’s had as a quarterback and his body. He’s had personal records in the weight room seven or eight times this winter. So, he’s really working his tail off and being a good example to everybody,” added Sawyer. “I thought he threw the ball extremely well, which is good to see. He’s been a little inconsistent this spring, but he’s still considered a rookie so his development is going to be huge and we expect he’s going to challenge for it in the fall.” 
 Rumpza added to his head coaches comment with more personal criticism, noting that the goals he set out of achieve in the spring weren’t reached.
No matter how the quarterback battles ends, Rumpza noted that the support from his hometown is surreal.
“I ran into a guy earlier who lived 2 miles away from me growing up,” he added. “It’s just cool to see guys like that coming back and watching you and have that support.” 
The Warriors will open the 2017 season at home against Bemidji State on August, 31.