Cretin Derham Hall Trio Gets Gopher Offers

Joe Schafer, a 6-foot-5, 265-pound junior offensive tackle from St. Paul (MN) Cretin Derham Hall, has received a scholarship offer from Minnesota, along with two of his Raider teammates, John Nance and Shady Salomon. The trio helped lead the team to a 10-1 mark and runner-up finish in Section 4, Class AAAAA. GoldenSports.Net recently caught up with Joe Schafer's father, Brad, to learn the latest.

Joe Schafer, John Nance, Shady Salamon and Michael Floyd all visited the Minnesota Gopher football offices last Monday. Floyd had been offered by Minnesota for some time, but the other three players received Gopher offers Wednesday.

Joe Schafer is hoping that he can be the latest Cretin lineman to move on to the Division I level, joining former Raiders Matt Carufel (Notre Dame), Ned Tavale (Minnesota), Raef Eubanks (Iowa) and Ryan Harris (Notre Dame).

Schafer previously told GoldenSports.Net that he is hearing from Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota, Iowa, Minnesota, Boston College and Wisconsin.

Schafer has been invited to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa summer football camps.

Salamon, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound running back, finished with 114 carries for 834 yards (7.3 yards per carry) with 16 touchdowns. He caught 28 passes for 288 yards (10.3 per reception) and three touchdowns. He was selected as an honorable mention Associated Press All-State selection.

Nance caught 11 passes for 138 (12.5 yards per reception). He doubled as the team's quarterback as a sophomore when Joe Spirnger was sidelined with an injury.

Nance and Schafer are also playing for the Cretin basketball team, which is off to a 13-5 start. Schafer started at center early this season when Broderick Binns was sidelined with a thigh bruise, but has since moved to the bench with Binns healthy. Schafer is averaging 4.0 points per game. Nance is the team's third-leading scorer, averaging 14.9 points per game.