Each Friday, after a home game or returning from the road, Blooming Prairie football coach Chad Gimbel sits down for his usual calls to the various media outlets.

His reports include the game score and all those stats that accompany it. Thanks to five high school girls, walking up and down the sidelines each game, his weekly task is made that much easier.

Like many high school stat takers in the state, the five working for Blooming Prairie are a team within a team. Katelin Strand and Erin Johnson carry the offensive stats, Amanda Wanous and Jordan Noble tackle the defense, and Katie Spande specializes on special teams.

Gimbel hails the team as one of the best, and a clear indicator of that is he doesn’t notice them.

“The best statisticians are the ones you don’t notice,” Gimbel said. “That means they are doing their job well.”

While from the sidelines it may seem like an easy job of writing down numbers — runs and passes, kicks and returns, tackles and interceptions — there is a lot to keep track of.

The list of stats taken almost makes the between two and three hours on the sidelines every night like a full-time job. The offenses for both teams are tracked: passing, rushing, touchdowns — the whole nine yards as it were. There are defensive stats that include tackles, sacks and interceptions, while on special teams there is kick and punt yardage as well as returning yards for both.

“I think it’s awesome what they do,” Gimbel said. “It is so nice when you have statisticians that have a strong understanding of the game. There are so many peculiar plays that can happen in football with penalties, fumbles, etc. and every yard has to be accounted for. I think our girls do an excellent job of this.”

While it seems like hard work though, the girls are certainly enthusiastic about what they do. They even take on the role of cheerleaders when there is a score.

“I love being on the sidelines for games and being right down on the field,” Strand said. “I have a lot of fun hanging out with the rest of the stat girls.”

“Sometimes it feels like a job,” Johnson said. “But you don’t get to scream your lungs out at other jobs.”

Gimbel doesn’t seem to have any problem getting girls to help out on the sidelines. Either he hand-picks them himself, they carry over from the year before, or are suggestions from girls working the previous years.

“I always have an underclassman work with the seniors and train them in for the next year,” Gimbel said. “When the new season starts the girls just know what to do.”

For all the work and concentration involved though, in the end it echoes the high school experience.

“I like to be involved with the team and be involved on the sidelines for every game,” Amanda Wanous said.

It’s about those stories that will be told over and over again in reunions to come. And this year’s stat-takers have plenty.

There was the game against Concordia Academy last year where Strand became part of the game rather than keeping track of it.

“Last year, at Concordia Academy, Katelin was doing her stats like a good stat person does,” Spande related. “However, she wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see the Concordia running back rushing toward the sidelines. The running back slid into her and sent her feet flying into the air, right in front of the BP fans.

“It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen,” she said.

Or something so simple as getting to the game became a challenge, especially when following someone else to where you think a tailgate party is going on.

“We didn’t know where the school was so we got directions,” Katelin and Amanda both relate. “Katie spotted a red Jeep driving in front of her and decided they must be going to the tailgate party. Instead of going to the party, Katie followed the Jeep to a dead end street, right in front of the St. James bus.

“Katie had to pull a U-turn in front of the bus and a woman who was watching us and laughing the entire time,” she said.

For two of the stat takers, Katelin and Katie, this season will be their last on the BP sidelines, but the two seniors are taking plenty of memories with them.

There is much to remember.

“All the good times with the other stat girls,” they agreed.

As for Amanda, Erin and Jordan, they plan on returning next year.

“I love being up next to the players and standing under the lights,” Jordan said.

And sometimes, you don’t need any more than that.

“You can’t put a price on good statisticians,” Gimbel said. “After games there are deadlines for the papers to meet and I need to make my call quickly. By the time I get done talking to the coaches and the team and walk over to the bench they have the stats tallied.”