Jonathan Ferris
Staff writer
The Sigma Phi Epsilon intramural flag football team may have a leg up on the competition this season as they are led by their quarterback and captain Trey Jurgens, a senior who came to Murray State on a partial football scholarship to be the Racer’s long-snapper.
“I started long-snapper my freshman year; I did all the long-snapping duties including all the punts, PAT’s and field goals,” Jurgens said. “After the season was over, I was really just ready to be done with football after bad experiences with the (former) coaching staff.”
Jurgens had to sit out from intramural football for two years after he left the University’s football team since he lettered collegiately. He said he is remarkably excited to finally be able to play competitive football again after his two year layoff.
“I’ve definitely missed football in every sense since I quit freshman year,” he said. “I missed being on the team and being able to have that brotherhood on the field. I’ve played softball and stuff like that, but none of those sports clicked with me like football did. I’m just so excited to get back into it.”
Football isn’t the only thing Jurgens is looking ahead to.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the Alpha Sigma Phi game,” Jurgens said. “That’s almost always the highlight of any season just because of the rivalry, and we lost all sports to them the previous two years and we just got back a couple sports last year and this year we’re going to keep going after that win.”
Jurgens said he truly believes in his team this year.
“We have a lot of athletes and most of our guys played some kind of sport in high school and I have a little college experience so we’re gonna be pretty good,” Jurgens said. “Once we can get some good commitment and our team gels, we’re going to be a pretty good team.”
While Jurgens has the most football experience of anyone on the team as the only one with college experience, he also will deal with learning to play a completely new position.
“This will be my first time ever playing quarterback,” Jurgens said. “In high school I played tight end and defensive end, but I’ll give quarterback a whirl this year.”
From the time he was in third grade, Jurgens has been on football teams.
“My dad was my little league coach and I played all through elementary and middle school,” he said. “I played on a nationally ranked high school football team and then obviously came here to long-snap.”
Jurgens said he thinks about what his college career might have looked like if he had not come to Murray to play football.
“I was always a fan of baseball,” Jurgens said. “I never played in high school but I was on the JV team throughout middle school and I’ve always loved baseball. But, if I would have known I was coming to Murray I definitely would have focused on bass fishing.”
As the other players on Sig Ep’s team said, they are definitely excited to have Jurgens leading their team. With his football experience from third grade through his freshman year of college, his teammates are excited about the season.
Watch Jurgens and the Sig Ep team in action as the flag football regular season begins this week on the intramural fields.