First year Austin head football coach Matt Schmit has finally seen his team compete and he liked what he saw.

The Packers made their annual trek to the North Dakota State football camp last weekend and things went pretty well.

“I was impressed with the intensity they brought, the first couple of scrimmages went really well,” Schmit said. “Then we lost our intensity for a little while and we sat down and had a talk.”

The Packers responded strong in the ‘rumble in the dome’ where eight teams line up in a circle and teams are put in various game situations against each other at random.

Austin finished third out of eight teams in that drill, which left Schmit feeling pretty good.

“They showed a lot of heart and they found out what it takes to play at a high level,” he said.

The camp is very competitive, including schools from Fargo, N.D. and Cambridge, Minn.

In, all Austin brought 42 players, including four freshmen, to NDSU and Schmit now has a much better grasp of what his team will look like.

“We’ve got a pretty good idea of what guys can do for us,” he said. “Some guys played well and a couple of guys stepped up and surprised us, which is good.”

Austin will hold its team mini-camp July 26-30 and the team will host its camp for fourth and ninth graders August 9-13. The youth camp, which drew over 100 participants last season, will run from 10 a.m. to noon.