Known for years for its outstanding basketball Briar Cliff embarks on a new challenge this Fall when the school debuts varsity football. The Chargers will be part of the Great Plains Conference and will open September sixth at home against Northwestern College. Veteran coach Dick Strittmatter has been given the task of starting the program and says the school felt the time was right to offer the sport.He says they knew it would help students enrollment, and he says it has. He says it also gives the school more identity. And he says football was needed to get the school into the conference. Strittmatter says potential recruits have been receptive to the new program. He says they’re in a good high school football area and he says they’ve gotten some good kids and are going to get more.Strittmatter has 29-years of head coaching experience but this is his first chance to build a program from scratch, and that’s what attracted him to the job. Briar Cliff finished 6-3 in playing a club schedule this past season and Strittmatter says the experienced gained will be a plus.