Coaches work hard and Dan Engelstad (see attached photo) is no exception. He squeezed in a visit to the WFMD studios this past week on “Trick or Treat Night” This was an especially busy week for Coach Engelstad as he begins his first year at the Division One Men’s Basketball level with the Mount. He unveiled a very young Mount squad on Thursday night in an exhibition game against Hood. The Mount has mostly freshmen and sophomores and very little from last season’s 18-14 team which played under the leadership of Jamion Christian now the head coach at Siena. But ready or not the Mount will open up at North Carolina State on this coming Tuesday night and teams like Maryland, Morgan State, Lehigh, American, and the University of Minnesota lie in wait before the Mount even begins the NEC campaign in early January. Coach Engelstad says there are financial reasons for the tough early schedule but he also thinks playing national powers toughens his team up for the conference campaign in January and February. Coach Engelstad is well prepared for this new coaching job and brings strong enthusiasm and an equally strong optimistic outlook. He promises Mount St. Mary’s fans will see a “long and lean” team that is “exciting to watch.” 5 players are at 6’7” or taller. He ticked off some names to watch: Jalen Gibbs out of North Point HS in Waldorf, Omar Habwe out of St. James School, Nana Opoku, a 6’8” freshman from Potomac HS in Woodbridge, Va., and Malik Jefferson, another freshman at 6’9” and 230 lbs from Hopewell HS in Virginia. Engelstad’s credentials for the job are off the charts; An amazing 104-34 won-lost record in 5 years leading Division 3 University of Southern Vermont. While there he was named conference coach of the year 3 times and led his team to 2 NCAA tournament appearances. When he arrived in Bennington, Vt. he inherited a 1-24 team. He said he installed his system right away and the results were awesome. Coach Engelstad is from Bethesda and played his college basketball at St. Mary’s College where he set a career assist mark. He played high school basketball at Walt Whitman High where he said, with a laugh, he was a “scoring threat.” Meet the new leader of Mount Basketball this Sunday (11/4) at 12:05 pm on 930 WFMD Radio, wfmd.com and the WFMD APP