Hayley Niewohner

Noah Pappas high-fiving some young fans during the Warrior walk.

One member of Winona State University’s football team has shown that he can go beyond both academically and on the field.

Recommended by Head Coach Brian Bergstrom, student-athlete Noah Pappas has proven himself an excellent candidate for this week’s athlete profile. A second year on the field and number 77 playing offensive line, Pappas shows positivity in the face of adversity and puts in the extra hours to succeed.

Pappas was just four when he began playing football for Armstrong Cooper Youth Football. He loved it enough to keep up with the sport when he graduated from Armstrong High School.

It was his sophomore year of high school when he started playing varsity football, and by his senior year, Pappas was excelling within his team. He finished the year as team captain and was named Offensive Line Teams Most Valued Player. He also earned First Team All-State honors, All-Conference, and All-District.

When choosing where to play football in college, Pappas noted how the decision was made easy for him. A former offensive lineman for Winona State, Payton Dachel, gave Pappas his official tour and from then on it was clear that his college career would be spent as a Warrior.

Unfortunately, the first year Pappas was a part of the team was during COVID-19. As a result, he did not receive much playing time.

During his second year at Winona State, he spent his time as a red shirt. As a red shirt player, the individual will still receive financial aid and practice with the team but will not compete during games.

Despite this, Pappas has been playing the best he can, focusing his time instead on learning and making improvements to his abilities.

Throughout the last four years on the team, Pappas has also figured out the key to balancing athletics and academics.

“It’s a balance of having good time management and then trying your very best not to procrastinate on everything,” he said. “Get a little bit done each day rather than trying to cram four hours into a Thursday night when I probably should be watching film.”

Pappas also found that success in football comes with winning, but also applying what he is being told by his coaches when he finds himself struggling and therefore fixing it on the field. When asked about the structure and dynamics of the team, Pappas related just how important the concept of family is to them, and how Bergstrom encourages tight-knit closeness among teammates.

“It starts with Coach Berg. He emphasizes that we are a family and we all kind of act as one team, and you definitely can see it at practice,” he said. “There is a competitiveness where we will kind of bang our heads but during the game, we are all one team. And I would say that family is a big part of our culture.”

We can surely see this idea of “family” while watching the games on Saturday afternoons. If the team is falling behind in points, we can see them working together to fight for the win by the end of the game.

Pappas is looking forward to the closing game on Nov. 11. He stated that the team has had great energy throughout practices all week and is hoping to send the seniors away with a win!