FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The St. Lawrence University football team visited Fort Drum on Saturday to see what the Light Fighters School had to offer the Soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division (LI).
The morning started with the Light Fighters School cadre showing players the Fort Drum confidence course, where Soldiers negotiated obstacles to demonstrate how to correctly get through the course.
"I think the football team will get a lot of team building from the events we set them up today," said Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Hurlbut, a member of the Light Fighters School cadre. "We wanted to show them what our school had to offer the Soldiers of Fort Drum."
Once the students were prepared to start the course, they lined up in front of a rope climb. After they had climbed to the top, they would walk over a balance portion of the obstacle onto a cargo net climb. The course also included high stepping, low crawling, rope swinging to a higher platform, and many other upper and lower body exercises.
"This is a great opportunity to see what Soldiers do for training," said Mark Raymond, head coach of the St. Lawrence football team. "The obstacle course was a lot tougher than it looked. The team built a lot of confidence once they had finished."
After the team had completed the course, they moved over to an open field at the Light Fighters School and received instructions for pugil stick training. The cadre showed them basic offensive and defensive movements on how Soldiers are trained.
"When they started showing us the pugil sticks, we thought it would be very easy, but we learned it was very tiring once we started going at it," said Mike Harris, an offensive lineman for the St. Lawrence football team. "They told and showed us how to use the padded sticks defensively and offensively so we knew what we were doing."
Once the briefing and demonstration was complete, the football team put on protective gear and began to go head to head in a friendly combative-style arena. The football team coach picked who would challenge one another with the pugil sticks.
The day was set up to test the football players' overall strength, confidence and endurance and show the college football team how Soldiers trained at Fort Drum. The team gathered with the cadre of the Light Fighters School for a group photo before they got back on their busses and took them back to the college.
"I was really glad we got the opportunity to come out and train with the Army today," said Justin DiBernardo, an offensive player for the St. Lawrence football team. "I don't think people know how much hard work these Soldiers put in every day to make our country a safe place to be."
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