Central adds two to football staff

PELLA—Two former Central College football co-captains have joined the team’s coaching staff.

Collin Erickson, who played defensive back, will serve as outside linebackers coach while Danny Samson, who earned all-America distinction as a defensive lineman in 2013, will join assistant Seth Marburger in working with the defensive line.

Erickson was a 2018 team co-captain and three-time letter winner. In 2016 he received honorable mention for the 2016 all-Iowa Conference squad and Central’s Claussen Award as the team’s most improved player. He was a member of the 2018 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society for academics. Erickson made 146 career tackles, including 72 solos, with 11 pass breakups and six interceptions. In his senior season in 2018 he had 51 tackles with four breakups and an interception.

After interning in college for Brownells in Grinnell, Erickson is now employed there as an accounts receivable specialist.

Samson was a 2013 team co-captain and three-time letter winner. He was a first-team pick for the D3football.com All-American team and the Iowa Conference defensive player of the year. Twice he was tabbed as the league’s defensive player of the week and named to the D3football.com team of the week in 2013. He received Central’s Heerema-Schilder Award as the team MVP and competed with a squad of Division III all-stars in the Tazon de Estrellas (Bowl of the Stars) in Mexico.

In 2013 he had 45 tackles with a team-high 11.5 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss for 96 yards. He also had three pass breakups, two fumble recoveries and three blocked kicks.

Samson works on his family’s farm near Baxter.