The Gustavus Adolphus football team will now have a stable of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva football players on its roster and a little more of a crowded backfield.

Greg Ramaker, a senior at NRHEG, has decided to attend Gustavus in the fall and he joins three other former Panther football players in St. Peter.

Ramaker, a 5-foot-11, 180 pound running back helped guide NRHEG to an 8-2 season and an appearance in the Section 2AA semifinals.

Ramaker rushed for 1,615 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior. In his first game of the season Ramaker rushed for 271 yards and five touchdowns against Blooming Prairie.

Ramaker was torn between attending St. Thomas and Gustavus — either way he would have company from high school.

“You have no idea,” Ramaker said about the difficulty of deciding between the two schools. “I went back and forth for months. The schools are so similar.”

Former Panther players Blake Kerkhoff, Travis Wayne, and Brad Kruckeburg all made their way to the Gusties’ football team this past fall while Dakota Tracy, NRHEG’s quarterback two seasons ago, attends St. Thomas and plays on the football team.

“It will just be nice to play with those guys,” Ramaker said. “It was totally different last year because they bring a different element. They just bring the intensity and they’re loose. They’re upbeat and they know how to get down to play ball.”

Kerkhoff and Kruckeburg saw some game action in the fall with Kekhoff appearing in one game before he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and Kruckeburg played in six games as a defensive back.

Wayne did not play in a game this season, but is also competing on the track and field team this season in throws.

Tracy, the Panthers’ former quarterback, played in the final four games last season and completed 3-of-9 passes and rushed for 42 yards on six carries.

Ultimately the proximity to home and academics played a deciding role, Ramaker said. He would like to pursue a career in pharmacy at Gustavus.

Gustavus finished 6-4 on the season and 4-4 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic College while St. Thomas finished 7-3. St. Thomas won the head-to-head meeting against the Gusties 30-22.

The Gusties have a new coach this season in Peter Haugen, who comes from Minneapolis Washburn after coaching there for 15 seasons, and the plan is to play Ramaker at running back, though Ramaker said there has been some talk of also playing safety. Having Ramaker at running back would mean a chance to compete against Kerkhoff for a spot in the backfield.

Ramaker and Kerkhoff remain close off the field as well and maintain a friendly competition with each other. Entering last season for the Panthers Ramaker had a goal of beating Kerkhoff’s 1,320 rushing yards the year before.

Both had highly successful senior seasons, but are two very distinct runners.

“Blake’s a little bigger. Blake was all out speed,” said NRHEG head football coach Dan Stork. “He (Ramaker) wasn’t. Greg is much more shifty.”

Kerkhoff and Ramaker ran track together last spring, but it was Kerkhoff who went to the state meet last year.

The friendly competition has been something that has driven Ramaker in the past.

“It all goes back to when those guys were seniors,” Ramaker said. “They pushed me.