DAYTON – Two members of the University of Dayton's very first NCAA playoff team – Ed Plaspohl and Bill Sahnd -- will serve as Honorary Coaches for Sunday's Flyer Football Spring Game. Plaspohl will coach the Red Team, while Sahnd will cover the White Team.

Sunday's kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET at Welcome Stadium.  Admission is free.  Gates will be open at 12 noon ET.  In addition, the game will be broadcast live on 1290 WHIO Radio and streamed on DaytonFlyers.com.  WHIO Sports Director Larry Hansgen and head coach Rick Chamberlin will call the game.

The Flyer football program is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1978 team finished 9-2-1 and reached the NCAA Division III playoffs in Dayton's first season of eligibility.  Plaspohl was a starting linebacker alongside Coach Chamberlin and won the Emil Karas Award for leadership.  Sahnd was a team captain (with Mike Bailey and Chamberlin) and is the only Flyer center to earn the White Allen MVP Award.

DaytonFlyers.com caught up to both Honorary Coaches and asked each four questions in advance of their returning to Dayton for this year's spring game.


DAYTONFLYERS.COM:  What are you doing now?

PLASPOHL:  I am living in Strongsville, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) with my wife Mary Ann.  We keep busy with our six (and one more on the way) grandchildren who live nearby.  I "graduated" from work three years ago and now spend my time with the homeless, poor and those living on the margins in the cities of Cleveland and Akron.  I also work with a wonderful organization called Boys Hope Girls Hope that provides opportunities for young men and women who are motivated and academically capable to meet and exceed their potential via the programs we provide.

SAHND: My wife Pat (who is also a UD grad) and I moved back to Ohio from Colorado in July, 2016.  We currently live in Bay Village, Ohio which is a suburb of Cleveland.  My son Brian and Malissa live three miles away in Rocky River with their three children. My son Kevin, who went to UD and worked for Tony Caruso as a student equipment manager, just moved back to Ohio from San Diego and is engaged to be married next April. I work for General Electric as an account manager selling high voltage electrical equipment for wind, solar and power plants.


DAYTONFLYERS.COM:  What is your best memory of Dayton football?

PLASPOHL:  First and foremost it is the relationships that remain today.  There are way too many great memories and stories.  They range from the locker rooms at the Glass Bowl in Toledo to the coldest I have ever been when we played Indiana State, but the one that sticks out right now is when we played Iowa State in Ames, Iowa when they were coached by Earle Bruce.  We nearly pulled off the biggest upset of the year and to have Coach Bruce come into our locker room after the game to talk to us after us hearing him berate and lash out at his team was pretty neat. 

SAHND:  The best memory is playing at Iowa State.  The whole atmosphere the day before and the day of the game was electrifying.  What is so important to all of us are the life-long friendships that developed while making these memories.


DAYTONFLYERS.COM:  What are you most looking forward to about coming back to the Spring Game?

PLASPOHL:  Any time you can go back to a place, to a field, to a locker room, to a setting that set the foundation for all that you have been able to achieve and overcome....well, it's just special and energizing.

SAHND:  Seeing the current team, meeting with the coaches and being on the side line.  It's hard to describe what that feels like.


DAYTONFLYERS.COM:  What was your reaction when Coach Chamberlin asked you to come back?

PLASPOHL:  It was great to hear from Rick and an honor that he asked but when he told me that Bill Sahnd would be "coaching" the other team I knew it was going to be tough to compete with him.  He will do whatever it takes to win that game and get his team fired up.  He will pull out all legal and not so legal tactics to get his team the "W".  That is why he was the MVP of our team.  Bill is a true leader who has succeeded in everything he has touched.  It would have been better to have Michael Bailey, our third captain along with Rick and Bill, to be a coach on Sunday, but since he is unable to make it, I will do my best to represent our defense. 

SAHND: I was surprised and honored.  It's not something I expected, but I am proud that Rick thought of me.


Both coaches' most important role at the Spring Game will be sharing their experiences with the team and connecting Flyer football's past with its present, but they are also looking forward to making each call – to go for it or to kick – on fourth down.

Following the scrimmage, the Flyer recruiting class of 2022 will join their new teammates on the field in the first step together toward the 2018 season, which begins just a little more than 100 days away when the team reports for preseason camp on Aug. 5.