Owatonna football has three seniors who have reached a big moment in their football careers. Landen Sturges, Ryan McIntosh, and Max Flemke have spent years working hard on the field, practicing after school, lifting weights, and playing in front of their hometown fans. Now, all that hard work has paid off, as each of them has committed to play football at the college level and take the next step in their journey.
Ryan McIntosh a defensive end, committed to play Football at U-W stout and is planning on majoring in construction management and minoring in Spanish. McIntosh says, “I chose Stout because I loved the location, being 40 minutes outside of the Twin Cities, but out of the way enough to hunt and fish. I also really liked their coaching staff. And they have the best construction management program in the Midwest, and that’s the field I’m going into.“
When McIntosh was asked what football means to him, he said, “Football is the game I grew up playing. Football has taught me countless life lessons and made me countless memories. Football means a lot to me, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Max Flemke committed to U-W Lacrosse to play defensive line. He will be playing with his former teammate, Zach Dahnert, who graduated from Owatonna last year. Flemke says “ I chose lacrosse because every time I went there it felt like home and somewhere I’d like to spend the next four years of my life on top of the fact that their health sciences programs are very good which I am going for.
When Flemke was asked what it means to play with former teammate Zach Dahnert again he says, “I’m excited to play on the same team as him again and offers some comfort knowing that will for sure know one other guy on the team.”
Landen Sturges committed to Division 1 university of St Thomas to punt. When asked why he choose to go there, Sturges said, “I chose St Thomas for multiple things one being the location I’m far enough away from home to where I’m on my own but if I want to come back for a visit I can. The campus is beautiful and everything is a close walk and class sizes are smaller and more personal but still get to be at a big school. The athletic facilities are awesome while being a D1 school and the coach’s are spectacular and care about the players. Lastly the opportunity for after high school employment in the degree that I’m pursuing is very high with connections all over and setting myself up for success.”
Sturges, a soccer player who joined football in his sophomore year, found himself having a prolific year as a punter for the Huskies last season and won Special Teams player of the year. Sturges shares his story of how he got into punting, “ I first started punting in soccer and was a goalie and was able to get it to go really far and high and when I wanted to get back into football during high school. I thought punting would be a great place to start and after a couple practices I loved it so much allowed me to be creative and do something I enjoyed. And decided to take it as far as I can go.”
