2008 Fall Rabbit Tracks

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 14 NO. 1 \ FALL 2008

DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497

NON-PROFIT US POSTAGE PAID BROOKINGS SD PERMIT 24

MOM O MOM ON NAM MISSION ISSION FAMILIAR FAMILIAR VOICE VOICE OF OF JACKRABBITS JACKRABBITS WOMEN’S NEW JOB WOMEN’S BASKETBALL BASKETBALL TAKES TAKES N EW J OB MORE THAN HORSE BARN MORE T HAN A H ORSE B ARN CURRENT CURRENT JACKS JACKS IMPRESS IMPRESS JIM JIM LANGER LANGER

An academic three-peat Women’s basketball team continues to rule in classroom

Full-fledged DI, but planning continues SDSU became an active member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association September 1, 2008.

All rights and privileges of membership are now granted to the Jackrabbits. First and foremost is the right to compete for NCAA national championships in twenty sports (equestrian is yet to be an official NCAA championship). In addition, full services of the NCAA for Division I members and grants and revenue become available.

No longer will the state of South Dakota be the only state without at least one sport being classified as Division I. It took a passionate and relentless alumni/fan base, an entire university community, and a dedicated athletic staff to make this happen.

The work is far from over to reach the long-term goals of this move to Division I. In September we are sharing our proposed five-year Strategic Plan with the Intercollegiate Athletic Board, the Athletic Advisory Council, and the Champions Council.

The plan will outline our goals with specific proposals for scholarship increases, additional positions, facility development, programming enhancements, operation and equipment enhancements, and capital expenditures to meet these goals.

We will use the “feedback” we receive from our boards and councils to refine the plan and make our plans available to the public. Like all plans, we will review it annually and modify it to best serve our student-athletes.

As we move forward, let me thank you on behalf of our entire staff and student-athletes for your loyalty and patience these last five years. You have demonstrated love and care for this program through your personal support and generosity.

Fred Oien SDSU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

On July 15 it was announced that for the third consecutive season, South Dakota State led all divisions of women’s college basketball in team grade point average. Simply amazing.

In basketball terms, that’s a triple-double, a 10-to-1 assistto-turnover ratio, a night of going 10-for-10 from behind the arc, or that game winning, buzzer-beater that touches nothing but nylon. Such an accomplishment sends chills down the spines of Jackrabbit fans around the country.

Lucky? Well, the rabbit’s foot is certainly auspicious, but these young ladies are extremely passionate about what they do and very relentless in how they go about doing it. That formula is exactly what has led to such accomplishments. A formula that has made them champions.

Found entrenched in the attitudes of our student-athletes, staff, and fans is that same mentality and adage—Passionate.

Relentless. Champions.

Accolades like this one are one in a million . . . or one in 1,720 if you are counting the number of collegiate women’s basketball teams in the country. Take that number times three years, factor in the student-athletes that graduated and enrolled as freshman, factor in travel schedules and numerous other variables, and it might take a near-genius to figure out the actual odds of winning this award. Better yet, it might take a Jackrabbit.

The 480 student-athletes at the University carry an overall grade point average of 3.05 and pursue more than eighty different majors.

• SDSU’s equestrian team finished second in GPA among Division I teams in the country.

• The women’s cross-country team finished third.

• The men’s and women’s track and field teams both were in the top twenty.

• The list of SDSU sports ranking in the top 100 academically at the national level goes on and on. The Jackrabbits had 216 student-athletes honored on academic all-conference teams during the 2007-08 academic year and six academic all-American awards were also bestowed on these bright, young men and women.

The revenue generation side of me thinks that if NCAA rules permitted, I’d sell a sponsorship to Encyclopedia Britannica and sew the encyclopedia logo to the back of their jerseys; however, the true Jackrabbit fan in me is just proud that these young men and women shed sweat and tears in a jersey that signifies something much, much deeper . . . Jackrabbit athletics.

George Scialabra of the Boston Globe recently wrote, “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” Speaking of which, who could have imagined the on-court success that has accompanied the academic achievements of these young men and women. Conference championships, NCAA bids, professional draft picks, and the list goes on.

And the best part is . . . they’re not done yet. In the words of Coach (or should I say “Professor”) Aaron Johnston, “Don’t stop believing.”

Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks.

Mark Burgers ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 14 NO. 1 \ FALL 2008

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BRAGGING RIGHTS

The Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center is to include an academic center for a program that already boosts some stalwart scholars.

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WHAT’S LEFT TO DO

Funds for the construction of the Dykhouse Center have already been committed, but many interior purchases are still waiting for donors.

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HELLO COACH

New volleyball coach Nana Allison-Brewer has distinguished herself on the court and among her Native American peers.

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SO LONG, SCOTTY

Longtime women’s basketball broadcaster reflects on his Jacks’ years.

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DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER Construction is to begin in October on the first athletic facility to be built on campus since 1973.

TYLER MERRIAM

Meet the new voice of Jackrabbit women’s basketball.

10 EQUESTRIAN CENTER Located just north of campus, the center gives the four-year-old program its own place to practice.

12 CAITLIN BERRY The senior is a mom on a mission — to balance championship aspirations with family responsibilities.

10 story ideas?

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Do you have story suggestions for our next issues?

If so, contact Mark Burgers, SDSU Athletic Department, (605) 688-6294, mark.burgers@sdstate.edu

SDSU PRESIDENT David L. Chicoine SDSU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Fred Oien SDSU SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR Jason Hove SDSU SPORTS INFORMATION ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ryan Sweeter ASSISTANT TO AD/EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Mark Burgers EDITOR Andrea Kieckhefer, University Relations CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Graves, Kyle Johnson, Ann Nachtigal, University Relations DESIGNER Kristi Schelhaas PHOTOGRAPHER Eric Landwehr, University Relations

Athletic Department South Dakota State University Box 2820, Brookings, SD 57007 Telephone: 1-866-GOJACKS Fax: 605/688-5999 Web site: www.gojacks.com Rabbit Tracks is produced by University Relations in cooperation with the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. Please notify the Athletic Department office when you change your address.

2200 copies printed by the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. PE069 08/08

14 JIM LANGER The NFL Hall of Famer gives a thumbs-up to the current edition of Jackrabbit football.

16 KELLY LARSON The senior soccer defender doesn’t want to see SDSU shutout of postseason play.

ON THE COVER An architect’s drawing shows what the $6-million Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center may look like in the future. Groundbreaking was Saturday, Sept. 13, just north of the football field, before the Beef Bowl game against Western Illinois.

DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER Construction to begin in October on $6-million facility

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ompeting for the best and brightest just got a little easier at SDSU. Construction on the new Dykhouse StudentAthlete Center begins this October and will mark the first stage of a master plan to dramatically modernize athletic facilities at SDSU. Last fall, Sioux Falls banker Dana Dykhouse, a 1979 graduate of SDSU and former Jackrabbit football player, presented seed gifts totaling $6 million from his family and Sioux Falls businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford. The donation set in motion the construction of the first major athletic building on campus since Frost Arena in 1973.

“It was a very special day,” says SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien of the November announcement prior to the Jackrabbits’ upset of No. 1-ranked North Dakota State that clinched SDSU’s first conference title since 1963.

“Dana and his son Dan both played football here, both used the same locker room, both are passionate about Jackrabbit athletics, especially football. From my perspective, the fun part was watching how happy he [Dana?] was that he was capable of doing it.”

Long rows of soaring thirty-foot pine trees in the north end zone of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium that once diminished whipping prairie winds and swallowed footballs booted through the goalpost uprights were ripped out during the summer. Construction on the showy Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center that will rise where the trees once stood will begin in October, with a target completion date of August 2009.

Exterior, interior plans described The sprawling building, spanning nearly 30,000 square feet, will be built of brick, precast concrete, and glass and will feature a unique butterfly roof, where both ends are higher than the middle.

ABOVE: Athletic Director Fred Oien, second from left, grabs a $1-million check from Dana Dykhouse at a November 17, 2007, press conference in the Performing Arts Center to announce $6 million in donations to build the first phase of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. At Oien's side is SDSU President David L. Chicoine. Dykhouse ’79 is flanked by his son, Dan ’06.

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DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

The second floor facing the football field will have an outdoor deck offering panoramic views of the stadium and game-day action below, to be used by athletic department donors and special guests.

Members of the football coaching staff also will use the area to meet and impress visiting recruits and their families.

Each of the coaches’ offices in the building will feature tall glass windows offering views onto the football field. The building’s interior will include state-of-the-art technology with rooms for editing and viewing game film, and walls will be decorated with colorful artworks and photographs highlighting great moments in Jackrabbit sports history.

The Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center will also house an academic center equipped with study areas, computers, tutors, and other educational aids for all SDSU teams.

makeshift meeting space for his coaching staff will also be a thing of the past, replaced by roomier offices in the new Dykhouse StudentAthlete Center.

“Seven years ago we hijacked three trailers that were on their way to the dump and we gutted them to make meeting rooms,” Stiegelmeier said. “Even though the trailers were a blessing, they are not something that you’re going to take a recruit through and say, ‘Here, this will wow you.’

“We pride ourselves in taking care of our student-athletes and giving them a great experience. When you have a great facility it makes a huge difference,” he said. “The Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center will be a one-stop football center. It has everything we need in one place.”

Block building, trailers to disappear The small, single-story block building at the southwest end of the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium grounds that served as the locker room for five decades’ worth of Jackrabbit football players will become only a distant memory, thanks to the new Dykhouse center.

Starting next season, football players will pull on their pads and yellow-and-blue uniforms in a spacious locker room offering luxury that previous generations of Jacks players never could have envisioned.

A well-equipped weight room for strength conditioning will be a welcome component of the new facility.

Coach John Stiegelmeier greatly appreciates that the trio of trailers cobbled together behind the east grandstand that served as

“WE MADE THE DECISION BEFORE WE EVEN GOT INTO DIVISION I THAT WE HAD TO UPGRADE THE FACILITIES. WHAT DIVISION I DID FOR US IS IT CHANGED THE PERCEPTION OF HOW PEOPLE LOOKED AT US AND WHAT OUR NEEDS WERE.” ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FRED OIEN Phase two plans Oien says the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center is the first phase of a much larger football stadium complex that will eventually include a second phase and a field house, both of which are already incorporated into the design plan.

TOP: A butterfly roof and large, east-facing windows are seen in this view of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. Construction of the brick, precast concrete, and glass building is to start in October. BOTTOM: A drawing shows the south elevation, which is the side that would face the football field.

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DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER decision before we even got into Division I that we had to upgrade the facilities. What Division I did for us is it changed the perception of how people looked at us and what our needs were.

Phase two will include team meeting rooms and offices for other sports including baseball, softball, golf, tennis, cross country, track, and soccer. The future design also includes a field house or a large open building where different sports teams can compete and practice indoors year-round.

All of these improvements are part of an SDSU Athletic Department master plan that was unveiled in 2004. The plan also includes building an entire new football stadium in stages with clubrooms and suites and an attractive, state-of-the-art building design.

Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, built in 1963, clearly is showing its age. The building passes yearly safety checks, Oien says, but at some point it will need to be replaced.

On a mission With interest in Jackrabbit football surging—SDSU set a school record for average home attendance last season at 11,218 fans per game and drew a record crowd of more than 16,000 for last year’s NDSU game—Oien says SDSU soon will outgrow Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

That makes the need for a larger stadium and better athletic facilities more pressing.

“There is a big push out there to get this done,” he says. “We’re on a mission to get all of these things accomplished. We made the

‘Either grow or you die’ For benefactor Dana Dykhouse, his vision of the new building named after him is more than simply a better football program. It’s a means to help keep South Dakota’s young people in the state to attend college and later to work and raise their families.

“At the end of the day we are competing for the young people of this state,” he says.

“My life has been touched by mentors, and if I’ve had any success in my life, it’s because of mentors.

“In business, one of my mentors said to me that you either grow or you die, and I believe in that wholeheartedly. The growth doesn’t have to be rapid but there has to be growth and progress. It’s truly time that we get started.”

ANN NACHTIGAL

ABOVE: Philanthropist Dana Dykhouse shows some of his fire for Jackrabbits athletics at a November 17, 2007, press conference in the Performing Arts Center to announce $6 million in donations to build the first phase of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. The center’s namesake, a 1979 graduate, donated $1 million.

BRAGGING RIGHTS EXTEND TO CLASSROOM

In addition to visions for top-notch facilities come lofty academic priorities.

SDSU student-athletes have some of the best graduation rates and grade point averages in the country.

Nationwide, the average graduation rate is 54 percent for college athletes.

SDSU graduates 70 percent of its student-athletes, according to Kathy Heylens, SDSU’s assistant athletic director for compliance and academics.

The average GPA among the 480 student-athletes in eighty different majors at SDSU is 3.05. The NCAA has requirements for Division I schools that says they must meet certain academic rates or risk penalties if they fail to do so.

But Heylens says that’s not an issue with SDSU student-athletes.

“We’ve always had a strong tradition of academics,” Heylens says. “We have coaches recruiting students who are good students first. Student-athletes here have to first get a degree and graduate.”

Heylens says the new Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center will further enhance the academic experience for student-athletes since all resources will be housed in one area.

Also, in the fall of 2009, SDSU will hire a full-time academic coordinator, a position Heylens currently holds along with her many other job duties. The money to hire that person will come from Division I academic money. She says the new hire will also help student-athletes to keep on track with eligibility.

ANN NACHTIGAL

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DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

THE DANA DYKHOUSE FILE RESIDENCE: Sioux Falls

MEET THE DYKHOUSES From left, Dan ’07; Alana, a student at Black Hills State University; Dana and LaDawn, both ’79.

Little did Dana and LaDawn Dykhouse know that when they wrote a $100 check to the SDSU Athletic Department’s Jackrabbit Club nearly twenty-five years ago, their philanthropy at their alma mater would one day increase 10,000-fold.

The Dykhouse family’s announcement last November of a $1-million gift to help build a new student athletic center came after years of wanting to give back to a place that had given them so much.

A Rock Rapids, Iowa, native, Dana Dykhouse received a full-ride scholarship in 1975 to anchor the defensive line on SDSU’s football team. He vividly recalls having his tuition and fees bill stamped paid.

“I look back and it’s just burned in my mind. I can see it to this day of having that bill marked paid and thinking, ‘Wow, someone is paying my way through college,’” says Dykhouse. “They were paying for it and I thought someday we want to pay that back, and when LaDawn and I did our first $100 to the Jackrabbit Club, that was part of it.”

Son followed Dad to State Dana and the former LaDawn Stenson, of Mitchell, also a 1979 State grad, met in college. The couple has two children—Dan, a 2007 graduate of State, and Alana, who attends Black Hills State University.

The passion for blue and yellow would later be felt by Dan Dykhouse, who starred at Sioux Falls O’Gorman High School before playing tight end for the Jackrabbits from 2002 to 2006. While State’s lackluster athletic facilities didn’t go unnoticed, he couldn’t ignore the pull of State and family tradition.

“It came down to Augie and SDSU. I can’t lie about it, Augie impressed me,” Dan says. “Everything they did was right. At State, the facilities weren’t a dream but there still was something special about SDSU. I really liked Coach Stig (John Stiegelmeier), and ever since I was a little kid I would go to SDSU football games and so the SDSU Jackrabbits were really all I ever knew. It was my dream to be a Jackrabbit, and I lived it.”

Dana Dykhouse, president and CEO of First PREMIER Bank since 1995, is one of Sioux Falls’ best-known businessmen and civic leaders. Recently, he was asked to cochair SDSU’s $190-million capital campaign—a challenging task, but one he readily accepted because of his passion for the University.

“It’s not just because LaDawn and I both graduated from there,” Dykhouse says.

“I sit on many economic development boards, and I’m just so convinced that the education of our young people in this state

OCCUPATION: President and CEO of First PREMIER Bank since 1995.

FAMILY: Wife – LaDawn (Stenson).

Children – Dan, a 2007 SDSU grad; Alana, a student at Black Hills State University.

HOMETOWN: Rock Rapids, Iowa EDUCATION: 1979 SDSU graduate CIVIC ACTIVITIES: Chair of Sioux Falls United Way campaign in 200607 and current board member; cochairman of the Forward Sioux Falls V campaign; member of Sioux Empire Fair Association; Junior Achievement; Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary; and the South Dakota Bankers Association.

SDSU ACTIVITIES: Member of SDSU NCAA Division I Athletic Advisory Council; past chair of the SDSU Foundation; director of the Foundation’s $190-million capital campaign.

and increasing the intellectual capital is what’s really going to be our future.”

Dykhouse hopes people will look at the gleaming Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center rising above the north end zone of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and think, “Here’s the way you can do it. Start at $100 and someday if you’re lucky enough you can give back even more.”

ANN NACHTIGAL

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DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

WHAT’S LEFT TO BE DONE The $6 million in gifts from businessman T. Denny Sanford and the Dana and LaDawn Dykhouse family essentially covers the bricks and mortar for the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center.

Now, what’s left to be done is to raise about $1 million to $1.5 million to cover all the interior furnishings and fixtures.

Jackrabbit fans will play a pivotal role in creating a lasting legacy in the new building, according to Mike Burgers, associate athletic director for development at SDSU. “There is going to be a tremendous amount of naming opportunities,” Burgers says. “Fans can put their names on everything from coaches’ offices to the academic center to the weight room to lockers and even the foyer areas.”

While Burgers didn’t have an exact dollar amount needed in donations for each item, he did say that his team is gathering information from other schools with similar projects in the works.

Burgers, Dykhouse, and Athletic Director Fred Oien recently visited Auburn to see firsthand how the Alabama university incorporated naming opportunities into a new engineering building.

“We’re gathering information right now and listening to their recommendations, and we’ll see how that fits with our mission at SDSU and figure out how to best accomplish our goals,” Burgers says.

Called to step up to the challenge According to Burgers, his staff will be contacting every former SDSU football player and is looking for the entire Jacks football community, including fans and alumni, to step forward “in a big way” to help fund the new building.

While Chuck Benson, of Sioux Falls, a fullback at SDSU from 1975 to 1978, hasn’t sat down yet with his wife, Joelle, to discuss a possible financial contribution, he fully supports the new facility.

“I think it’s a marvelous gift from both Dana and his family and Mr. Sanford,” Benson says. “Dana has such a commitment and passion for SDSU and its athletics program and football in particular. It’s just a blessing to be able to come up with that money.”

Benson knows the student-athlete development center is long overdue. He recently visited the same cramped, one-story

to donate

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cinderblock locker room he and former teammate Dykhouse shared in the mid-1970s and said he felt stuck “in a time warp,” witnessing the same old dreary walls and faded paint.

Benson believes the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center will definitely help the Jacks recruit players.

“To get a top-notch facility like this could mean the difference in winning over that blue-chip player,” he says.

Football excitement building Although construction on the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center isn’t scheduled to be completed until December 1, 2009, it’s already created a buzz of excitement among Jackrabbit fans.

Burgers hopes increasing fan interest in State’s football team across the region will boost last year’s record attendance of more than 11,000 fans per game at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium to about 15,000 per contest this season.

“Football tickets are hot right now,” he says. “This is such a tremendous project. So much progress has been made already, but we have lots to accomplish. It’s a fast timeline, but it’s exciting to follow.”

ANN NACHTIGAL

“Fans can put their names on everything from coaches’ offices to the academic center to the weight room to lockers and even the foyer areas.”

Mike Burgers, associate athletic director for development

or for more information on the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center, contact Mike Burgers, associate athletic director for development, at (605) 697-7475, 888-747-7378 or mike.burgers@sdsufoundation.org.

In ALLISON-BREWER, Jacks have much more than a volleyball coach

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he 2008 NCAA Volleyball Tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska, was destiny in the making for Nanabah (Nah-na-ba) Allison-Brewer.

She watched as this school from South Dakota battled the Nebraska Cornhuskers, one of the top-ranked teams in the nation that was practically unbeatable on their home court.

The Huskers won in three straight games, but something about the vanquished foe remained with Allison-Brewer long after the tournament concluded.

She saw an attractive program that had a history of success. She remembered the squad taking second in the NCAA Division II Tournament, and now as an inaugural member in Division I was in the big tournament after winning the regularseason Summit League title the first time out.

“As a coach you recognize everyone in the bracket and that’s what caught my eye,” says Allison-Brewer. “I thought, wow, this is a program I need to follow and store in the back of my mind as a potential school that could be a good fit for me.”

Her wish came true, because on May 23, the Native American, a member of the Navajo Nation, was named the tenth head volleyball coach in SDSU history.

She takes over for Andrew Palileo, who resigned to take the head job at Washington State University.

“I’m really excited and honored to be given this opportunity,” she says. “I’m following a great guy who has brought a lot to SDSU and the state. I’m thankful for the chance to come in and give my passion, love, and knowledge of the game to the girls and the community.”

Heritage comes into play In addition to being a head coach, the SDSU position was also appealing due to Allison-Brewer’s background. She grew up in Farmington, New Mexico, a state where the Navajo Tribe resides. The Navajo Nation is also found in Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

ABOVE: Nanabah Allison-Brewer, shown in her duties as an assistant coach at Dartmouth, was selected May 23 to replace Andrew Palileo, who took the Washington State job. At the college level, it is the first head coaching job for Allison-Brewer, who founded the Native American Volleyball Committee.

“There is a large Native American population in South Dakota,” she explains.

“I enjoy learning about other tribes and cultures that exist around the country.”

Allison-Brewer is founder of the Native American Volleyball Academy, a grassroots organization devoted to bringing the sport of volleyball to Native American communities through camps and clinics.

She isn’t ruling out holding camps in South Dakota, even though they are currently held only in her home turf of the southwest.

“Everywhere I have gone I’ve been able to connect with native communities in that

area,” she says. “I do look forward to meeting South Dakota tribes and creating a relationship with them.”

Viewed as role model Allison-Brewer’s family motivates her to keep moving forward as a role model and mentor. Her husband, Joseph, of the Oglala Sioux and Cherokee Tribes, hails from Iowa.

They have two daughters: I’yawa and Seena-ne.

She is one of just a handful of Native Americans to play and coach at the Division I level.

KYLE JOHNSON

NEW COACH HAS OWN STELLAR CAREER Nanabah Allison-Brewer begins her first season as head coach of the SDSU volleyball program after serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Before that, she was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Arizona, where she earned a master’s degree in higher education in 2006.

Graduating from the University of New Mexico in 2000 with a degree in statistics, Allison-Brewer earned four letters with the Lobos, ranking eighth in career digs and service aces. She was the 1998 Western Athletic Conference Defensive Specialist of the Year, and the Native American Sports Council tabbed her the Woman Sports Warrior of the Year in 1999.

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So long,

SCOTTY Familiar voice of Jackrabbits women’s basketball takes new job

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aron Johnston has lost a lot of good players during his eight years as women’s basketball coach.

Fortunately, those losses have been anticipated as the athletes reached the end of their eligibility and graduated. Two months after the end of the 2007-08 season, Johnston got an unexpected call—he was losing the voice of Jackrabbits women’s basketball.

Scotty Kwasniewski, the veteran Brookings radio announcer, was switching career fields.

“I was surprised. I didn’t have any inkling that he was looking at moving on,” says Johnston, acknowledging disappointment that he wouldn’t be working with Kwasniewski, better known as Kwas, during the coming season. “I was very surprised, but very happy for him when he explained the opportunity.”

In May, Kwas began working as an employment representative with the South Dakota Career Center.

While he won’t be crying “Up and in for two” or “Left wing for three—got it!” there is an aspect of his former job that he will be able to continue in his new position. The news and sports broadcaster will continue to interview.

But now his interviews will be with people “about what they like to do and don’t like to do,” Kwas says.

Living a simpler life His job of linking people with jobs and jobs with people offers Kwas improved benefits, one of which is not getting up at 4:45 a.m. to do the morning show on 910-AM KJJQ. “If I could have done women’s basketball for a living, I would,” he says.

But the position didn’t end with the post-game interviews or the last contest of the seasons.

Other parts of the job weren’t as attractive to Kwas, plus there were other Kwawniewskis to think of. He and his wife, Carla, have two children—Carter, a seventh-grader, and Kaitlin, a ninth-grader.

Conflicts were on the horizon between his daughter’s sports schedule and SDSU broadcasting demands.

He says he will to do some freelance work and is in the process of setting up a studio in his home.

Big opportunities in a small market Originally from Webster, Kwas has made Brookings home. “In our industry, there is always the pull to get to the bigger market. For me, I never had to go anywhere. It just came to me,” he says of the chance to broadcast DI basketball.

Before graduating from Brown Institute in Minneapolis, the future broadcaster knew he wanted to come home to South Dakota.

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The KJJQ position was the only job he interviewed for, and he is thankful for his fourteen years in the business, particularly the eleven years as women’s basketball broadcaster. His first taste of it came when a student broadcaster couldn’t make a North Dakota trip.

“It was cold and snowy. We got beat both nights by about twenty,” Kwas recalls from early 1997. “I thought, ‘What did I get into?’”

directly related to their success,” says Kwas, who adds he was constantly looking for ways to improve his performance.

In announcing more than 300 Jackrabbit games in his career, he says “there were only a half-dozen games where afterwards I thought I really nailed it.”

That’s one call that his listeners might dispute.

DAVE GRAVES

History before his eyes What he got into when he took over announcing duties in the 199798 season was a chance to witness history.

Johnston says, “Scotty has been a very memorable part of our program. He has called some of the program’s biggest moments—the national championship, Stacey Cizek’s three to get us into the national championship, our transition to Division I. “Scotty’s voice and the way he called the game are going to be ingrained in people’s minds for a long time.”

When Kwas began broadcasting, the SDSU women had a strong program, but it ranked second to the men in fan interest.

“As a broadcaster, you just try to make it as fun and exciting as possible and reveal the people in the game. How do you make it different from any other game on the radio? I want it to be an exciting thing.

“At the same time, I don’t want to lie. You have to be truthful,” says Kwas, who saw himself as part journalist, part promoter.

Coach Johnston says, “One of the things I always appreciated most about Scotty is he did a good job of being objective—asking the tough questions after a loss, but at the same time still being fair to our athletes and coaches.

“He was very fair, very likeable. He wasn’t just a voice on the radio, he was someone you’d see walking down the street.”

Gaining a measure of fame Or at the store, or in church. As the women’s team became more popular and as the broadcast became available at more outlets, including the Internet, his name and voice became better recognized, Kwas says.

“Oh, you’re the guy that does the games,” people would tell him when he was grabbing a jug of milk.

“It was fun; at the same time a little uncomfortable. I don’t know that the spotlight is the spot for me. Any fame I got was

TO TAKE AN AUDIO TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE, GO TO GOJACKS.COM FOR CLIPS FROM THE 2007-08 SEASON.

MEET THE NEW VOICE TYLER MERRIAM, the new voice of Jackrabbits women’s basketball, isn’t such a new voice.

Though he is only 23, Merriam is a veteran of broadcasting and SDSU athletics. He has broadcast selected SDSU baseball games for the past three years. He will continue that, pick up the volleyball broadcasting duties that Brad DeBeer had handled, and will call all the women’s basketball games on KJJQ. “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” says Merriam, who also has four and one-half years experience in the SDSU sports information office.

The December 2007 SDSU journalism graduate was working “part time, forty hours a week” at the sports information office when the job with Brookings Radio came open in mid-May, the Pierre native shares.

His broadcast career started at age 15 doing a Sunday morning shift at the Pierre radio station.

Jackrabbit fans may recognize his voice from when he hosted KJJQ’s coaches show with SDSU coaches. “I know them and they know me,” says Merriam, noting a seamless transition is expected during the coming athletic season.

DAVE GRAVES

SCOTTY’S SIX The broadcaster’s most memorable moments calling SDSU games: 1 Stacie Cizek’s three-pointer at the buzzer that sent the 2003 national semifinal tournament game into overtime— “Cizek on the right wing. Good for three! Good for three! Tied at 57.”

2 Shannon Slagel hitting a bucket at the end of the game to beat Kentucky in 2004 and give SDSU its first Division I win.

3 A University of North Dakota shot going off the rim at the end of the 2004 regional championship to allow SDSU to advance to the Elite Eight national tournament for the third straight year.

4 Road wins at two well-known universities— Alabama and Oklahoma State— within a week of each other in the Jacks’ inaugural DI season, 2004-05.

5 Broadcasting from the Virgin Islands in the Paradise Jam in 2004 in State’s first year as a DI school.

6 Broadcasting from Grand Bahama Island for the Junkanoo Jam in 2006.

FALL 2008

9

More than a

horse barn

New equestrian center boasts forty-two stalls, 26,000 square-foot arena

W

hen she first came to SDSU in 2005, Megan McGee knew it would be a challenge to build a successful women’s equestrian program from scratch.

“A lot of people said ‘you can’t do that in South Dakota. You can’t be a competitive equestrian squad,’” she says.

Although McGee encountered skepticism from outsiders, she saw potential for the program in the support of the University. “This is a bit of a first in terms of a university making this kind of a commitment to the program,” says McGee. Three years later, the growing program is now turning the heads of competing universities and potential recruits with its new $3.6-million facility.

“The facility is a very powerful recruiting tool for us,” says McGee.

“Students understand that if they come up here they have a legitimate chance to be part of a competitive team on the national level.”

Providing opportunities SDSU alum Nathelle DeHaan ’37, of Brookings, provided the initial gift to build the equestrian program and new facility.

DeHaan was an active member in the local horse community for nearly five decades and traveled with her husband, Lawrence, to judge and show quarter horses.

She saw the new equestrian program as a chance to provide better opportunities for young women riders, which is exactly what it did for senior equestrian Lindsay Harr, of Zell.

The program has given Harr the chance to develop into a serious rider, even though she has been riding most of her life.

“I went back and looked at some of my tapes from old shows and can’t believe I

even got on the team! I’ve learned a lot here,” says Harr, a Redfield High School graduate who qualified for last year’s regional championships.

Winter-proof facility The NCAA varsity equestrian season lasts the entire academic year, so athletes must practice throughout winter.

“The idea behind the design was for us to be completely operational even in the worst of weather. We have forty-two stalls in the facility with additional areas to groom the horses, prepare them for practice, and wash them afterwards. We have a locker room facility for the students equipped with Wi-Fi so they can study here.

“We even have an area where the vet and horseshoer can bring their vehicles inside and work,” says McGee.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The equestrian team moved into its new $3.6-million facility in May. In addition to the main building, a pole barn north of the center provides a place to store hay and other goods. Oreo gives his approval to one of the forty-two stalls in the new center. The riding arena covers 25,000 square feet, about the size of half a football field.

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Once the SDSU Foundation completes fund-raising for Phase I, the facility is expected to undergo a second phase of construction. Phase II will include the addition of a stall barn, viewing rooms, coaching offices, a meeting room, and even a trophy room.

“There is more to be done that is going make this place even more spectacular,” says McGee. A place to call home McGee is most excited about the new facility’s riding area. “We’re going from 6,000 square feet to almost 26,000 square feet,” says McGee, alluding to the temporary equestrian facility that SDSU had been leasing for the past three years.

“The old place was really nice but it got so crowed in there,” recalls Harr.

“Yeah, we were really bumping into one another every step of the way, and it was a very good facility but we were over capacity from the moment we started” McGee says.

To get away from overcrowding a few days each week the squad began to practice at the Swiftel Center where it hosts competitions. However, that made the team somewhat nomadic.

“We would pack up and move an entire operation. It would take us hours, it would take up whole days’ worth of time for the entire staff to move everything and than

“THE IDEA BEHIND THE DESIGN WAS FOR US TO BE COMPLETELY OPERATIONAL EVEN IN THE WORST OF WEATHER.” COACH MEGAN MCGEE ON THE NEW EQUESTRIAN CENTER

another half of a day to move back. In our own facility we have more time to spend with the students and build the program,” says McGee. Harr has been with the team since it began and stuck out three years of weekly relocations to the Swiftel. Her message to new team members who will join the team this fall: “You guys have it easy!”

She anxiously remembers thinking “just let me get in there!” while waiting for construction on the new facility to be complete.

Harr, her teammates, and even the horses were happy to finally move into their new home in May. “The horses like it too. Horses are very susceptible to stress, which can decrease their performance. The old place had solid walls so they could not see one another, but they are herd animals and want to see their buddies. This is a better environment for them,” says McGee. Last season the SDSU equestrian team concluded a successful second year. Nine riders qualified for regional championships, and three made it to nationals, where

SDSU’s western rider Trisha Smeenk won third place.

Even more success is expected for the 2008-09 season. “Now that we have the new facility, we hope to get better performances from the athletes and better performances from our horses,” McGee says.

Settling in Like many of the team members, Harr spends a lot of time at the new facility. The athletes are expected to help manage it, and managing a $3.6-million barn with forty horses and 150 acres of land is a lot of work.

Extra help usually comes from student employees studying animal science or who are involved in the new equine management minor.

Before another hectic season begins this fall, the team has been settling into the new facility at a comfortable pace. “We’re still unpacking boxes and getting stuff put away. I’m okay right now about being the best kept secret at SDSU just because we still got a little bit of work to do.”

BRITNI THOMPSON

TOP LEFT: Lindsay Harr brushes Rafiki in his stall in the Equestrian Center. TOP RIGHT: Gathered at Curtis’ stall in the SDSU Equestrian Center are, from left, Coach Megan McGee, Nathelle DeHaan, the major donor for the Equestrian Center; and Lindsay Harr, of Zell, a senior who will graduate more than seventy years after DeHaan earned her degree at State.

FALL 2008

11

She had earned a track scholarship to Augustana after a solid career at Watertown High School. But life changed those plans. She married classmate Ryan Berry July 10, 2004, just two months after their graduation.

Berry was an SDSU football recruit. Berry kept the family in tact by switching to State. On December 23, 2004, the family grew with the birth of their son, Carson.

Obviously, running wasn’t a part of Berry’s freshman year at State.

A second chance for running But running certainly is a part of Berry. Soon after Carson’s birth she was missing the competitiveness of the sport. After discussing it with her husband and family, Berry decided to push back the clock and try collegiate athletics after all.

Of course, one can never fully step back in time.

If Berry was going to run collegiately, there was the hurdle of caring for Carson that would have to be cleared. Thanks to Ryan, her mom, and friends, Berry has cleared that hurdle and has become SDSU’s top-returning runner.

Patty Hiedeman, Berry’s mother, cared for Carson twice a week until dropping back to weekly last year.

Friends also watched the little one and nursing students were hired when Mom and Dad had overlapping commitments. “We didn’t want him to go to day care” when he was very young, Caitlin Berry explains.

Carson did go to day care ten to fifteen hours a week last year when the couple was in practice.

Summer strolls and other workouts In the summer, Berry and Carson hang out in their south Brookings townhouse. Often he is in the stroller while Mom is logging her summer miles—fifty per week in midsummer, peaking to seventy by summer’s end.

Sometimes Ryan and Carson are on the bike while Berry is running. “It helps to have someone else there with you,” she says.

On occasion, Berry runs with former teammate Becka (Mansheim) Foerster and fellow senior Claire Steinke. Then there is

MOM ON A MISSION Berry looks for fast finish to college running career

S

aying Caitlin (Hiedeman) Berry comes from a running family would be like saying Ted Kennedy comes from a political family.

The family crest is a pair of winged shoes. The Hiedemans own their own race timing system. They turned a family Thanksgiving Day challenge of “If you want to eat, you’ve got to run” into a community 5K run.

So it’s really no surprise that the Watertown family’s daughter Caitlin is running cross country and track at SDSU. Or maybe it is.

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that weekly trip with coach Rod DeHaven and teammates to the hills east of White near the Minnesota border.

Those gravel roads are one of the few places in this flat area that a good hill workout can be had.

Sometimes they will run at Edgebrook Golf Course, where SDSU’s lone home meet is held. But “a lot of our workouts are on country gravel roads. Rod’s always yelling at us to quit being sidewalk Sallies and get on the gravel,” she says.

Because of the miles cross-country runners log, staying off the pavement lessens injury risk.

“THAT RACE SHOWED ME DON’T BE SCARED OF A UNIFORM OR A NAME. JUST GO OUT AND DO WHAT YOU CAN.” CAITLIN BERRY ON HER PERSONAL RECORD 3,000-METER RUN

Dealing with injury However, Berry developed an injury toward the end of the 2008 indoor track season that has taken the glimmer off her performances. Earlier in the summer she was diagnosed with popliteal tendonitis, an inflammation of a small tendon on the back of the knee.

During outdoor track season, her times were respectable but not to the level she had run.

The discomfort began in the arch and worked up her leg. Treating the ailment as plantar fasciitis didn’t help, nor did a three-week layoff at the beginning of summer. With the tendonitis diagnosis, Berry is receiving different therapy and avoiding sprint work.

“Hopefully it will be fine by the time cross-country season starts,” she says five weeks from the opening meet.

“The worst is when I’m in spikes with not much support and working at my hardest. As long as I can get the miles in, I think I’ll be OK,” says Berry, noting she did have good results during a summer road race wearing racing flats.

Champions made in the summer Berry is a seven-day-a-week runner, doing double runs three to four times a week.

That discipline is what makes her a good runner, she says. “The summer is going to make the difference in the fall. It takes a good base of workouts in the summer to be ready for the fall” or runners won’t be in condition for fall workouts and often end up injured.

“I am pretty consistent in the summer,” usually going at 8 a.m. and again at 5 or 8 p.m., depending on the heat.

Plus she is competitive.

“I’ve got it in me I am going to do my best. I don’t want to be away from Carson and Ryan if I’m not going to do my best,” Berry says.

A race to remember Her best race as an SDSU runner came at the Iowa State Classic February 15, 2008, in the 3,000 meters.

“Rod (DeHaven) never lies about entry times to get us in a fast heat. I had run a 10:12” in the race that is half a lap short of two miles, Berry says. This time DeHaven made an exception, entering Berry at 9:59 to get her in the fast heat.

In the major meet, slower heats are held in the afternoons with the prime-time runners entered into the evening heats. “This was the first time I had run in the evening section or the fastest evening heat,” Berry recalls.

“I was so nervous. I looked around. There was Nike to my left, Reebok to my right. [University of Minnesota standout] Jaime Cheever was there,” Berry says of the field that included runners sponsored by the shoe companies and top collegians.

The thirty-two ladies in the heat also included Ramsay Kavan, who competed against Berry in high school for Yankton.

“Everybody knew Ramsay Kavan. She changed the face of distance running in high school,” Berry says of the University of South Dakota athlete who competed at Notre Dame during a successful freshman season.

Valuable lesson learned When the starting pistol sounded, nervousness died and adrenaline emerged.

Berry ran a 9:44:80, which was twenty-seven seconds faster than her personal record and the third fastest time in school history. “It made Rod feel good about fibbing on his time to get me in” to the fast heat, she says.

Her clocking placed eighth, half a second and one place in front of Kavan.

“It was pretty cool to say I can run with her. That race showed me don’t be scared of a uniform or a name. Just go out and do what you can. That race made my decision to stay out for track my last year. I saw what I could do,” she says.

In the future Ryan and Caitlin Berry will both graduate in May 2009 with biology majors.

Ryan plans to enter med school in the fall. Berry, who has a predental emphasis, says, “There is a lot to figure out in the near future,” including when to expand their family. “Ultimately, I want to be a stay-at-home mom. There is a lot that still has to be revealed to us.”

One thing seems certain: Berry will be home in Watertown this Thanksgiving joining in the family tradition—a run.

DAVE GRAVES

BERRY GOOD Caitlin Berry YEAR: Senior MAJOR: biology/pre-dental, 4.0 GPA HOMETOWN: Watertown PERFORMANCES: 9:44.80 in the 3K, February 15, 2008, Iowa State Classic, third best in school history; third (10:04.29) in the Summit League indoor 3K, March 1, 2008, at Western Illinois University; fifth (22:03) in the Summit League conference cross-country meet, November 2007, Macomb, Illinois.

MISCELLANEOUS: Has run four marathons—Grandma’s in Duluth, Minnesota, three times (ages 16, 17, and 18) and Twin Cities.

FALL 2008

13

CURRENT JACKS IMPRESS

LANGER NFL Hall of Famer says 2007 primes State football to play at higher level

F

aithful tailgaters who gather and socialize prior to cheering on the Jackrabbit football team will be afforded new areas to congregate when the Dykhouse StudentAthlete Center is built.

One tailgater doesn’t mind moving at all because he realizes it’s progress in the making and one that benefits the SDSU athletic family.

“It will be a great addition that finishes off the north end,” says Jim Langer. “It will take away our tailgating spot, but that’s okay. We will find another suitable spot. It (the center) will greatly improve the efficiency and quality of the entire program for everyone.”

Langer happens to know a little bit about being efficient. The 1970 graduate from Royalton, Minnesota, enjoyed a twelve-year career in the National Football League. He is the only player in the former North Central Conference to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he was enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in 1987.

He played in three consecutive Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins winning two rings. He experienced perfection in 1972 when the Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied at 17-0 overall following three playoff wins.

For the Jacks, he was a linebacker on defense, and a guard and tackle on offense.

However, at six feet, two inches and 270 pounds, he was an agile and savvy center for the Dolphins. He played every snap during the ’72 campaign, and of the 500 pass blocking assignments that year, he needed help on only three plays.

Central Conference and all-America recognition in both sports.

Strong SDSU ties Langer has never strayed too far from SDSU, which has been like a second home to his family. He and his wife of forty years, Lynda, have four children and all attended SDSU: daughter Carrie, and sons Tracy, Craig, and Russell, who all played baseball for the Jacks.

Co-owner and president of Custom Truck Accessories in Ham Lake, Minnesota, Langer sees SDSU on the move in more ways than one.

“MY MEMORIES ARE OF THE SPECIAL PLAYERS I PLAYED WITH. I REMEMBER HITTING MY FIRST BLOCKING SLED AT STATE, AND IT KNOCKED ME BACKWARD ABOUT SIX FEET! IT WAS A PRETTY MODEST BEGINNING.” Named to the Pro Bowl six times, Langer became the twenty-fourth member of the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. He was a three-year letterman in football and baseball, earning all-North

JIM LANGER An analogy can be drawn between his alma mater experiencing record enrollments and a construction boom to the words of his Hall of Fame former head coach.

ABOVE: Jim Langer blocks for teammate Darwin Gonnerman (43) in a November 2, 1968, game against Augustana at State field. Langer helped Gonnerman score five touchdowns in that game. As a pro, he helped the Miami Dolphins to the only perfect NFL season—17-0 in 1972.

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RABBIT TRACKS

LEFT: Langer gives an interview outside the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, September 7, 2007. RIGHT: Langer tours the Hall of Fame.

(Photos by Ty Carlson/SDSU Sports Information).

“Like Shula (Don) use to tell the Dolphins, you either get better or you get worse,” relates Langer. “You must grow every day or you go backward. I picture SDSU as being where it should be right now.

“I’ve always thought SDSU was a great campus and a quality school,” he adds.

“South Dakota should be very proud of this institution. Its academics are terrific.”

Likes direction of current program Appearing in 141 consecutive regular-season games until a chipped bone ended his Miami career in the ninth game of the 1979 season, Langer is impressed with the direction of the Jackrabbit football program.

He views the new Missouri Valley Football Conference as being “positive,” but “very tough” at the same time.

BASEBALL COACH HOLDS SPECIAL PLACE FOR GRIDDER

“Watching the team last year and making the trip to Youngstown State, I sincerely believe State is well coached and attracting quality players,” he says. “They obviously were very competitive, and to get better, you must play better competition.”

Langer says he has visited with parents of players and recruits who have chosen SDSU, and they are impressed with Jacks’ head coach John Stiegelmeier, who has guided the program to six consecutive winning seasons and has had only two losing campaigns in eleven years.

“John has surrounded himself with some solid assistants,” he observes. “They are excellent with communication, and the players respond and work hard.

“He has let these people coach and that is great on his part,” he adds. “They earned a

great deal of respect last year, and that’s a tribute to John and his approach to building the program.”

Even though it’s been four decades since Jim Langer was earning an economics degree and completing his second lieutenant commission through Army ROTC, he feels the era in which he played was the best at the time.

“The NCC was a great conference whose time was over,” he says. “I was proud to play in it and always thought it was one of the best Division II conferences.

“My memories are of the special players I played with,” he adds. “I remember hitting my first blocking sled at State, and it knocked me backward about six feet! It was a pretty modest beginning.

Just like today, State had great people to help and you must have that.”

Langer lettered in football in 1967, 1968, and 1969, earning all-conference and honorable mention all-America honors as a senior.

On the baseball diamond, Langer led the conference in hits (twenty-three) and earned run average (1.57) in 1969 to earn all-conference and all-America laurels. He had a .317 career batting average, playing in seventy-three games. He sported a 9-13 career pitching record with a 3.39 earned run average.

When Langer wasn’t playing sports or in the classroom, he worked as an all-night gas station attendant in downtown Brookings.

In late spring of his senior year, he signed a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns. He was later released and signed by the Miami Dolphins and the rest was NFL history.

“I was very fortunate,” Langer says of his humble beginning. “I owe Erv Huether a great deal. He was my old baseball coach who got me a tryout with the Browns.”

Success at next level Langer, who finished his last two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, witnessed his Jacks defeat North Dakota State last season to capture the conference championship— momentum that carries nicely into the 2008 campaign, he indicates.

“We’ve had a blast going to the games and tailgating,” he says. “We saw the NDSU game, and it was fantastic to see the energy level that game put into the program.

“That was a historic moment,” he adds.

“It takes you to the next level confidencewise. Now, you build on that experience.”

KYLE JOHNSON

KYLE JOHNSON

FALL 2008

15

LOVE at first sight Larson anxious to put icing on stellar soccer career

E

This is the first season that the program is eligible for the Division I national tournament and “we see big things for us,” Larson says. “We plan on making it to the NCAA tournament. We all put in a lot of work this summer.”

For Larson, that meant weightlifting, fitness work, and playing pickup games with the guys.

To qualify for the sixty-four-team NCAA tournament, SDSU must win the Summit League tournament. Only the top four teams in the league qualify for the tournament. SDSU finished third last year but was ineligible for postseason play.

A strong defense paced the 2007 squad, which recorded seven shutouts, four of them consecutively at the end of the season.

ven ardent SDSU supporters will admit that a November night in Brookings isn’t the best time to make a great first impression on campus visitors.

But darkness or a yellow-and-blue stupor blocked any bleakness from the vision of Kelly Larson, a senior at Mahtomedi High School near St. Paul, Minnesota, when she made her first trip to campus in November 2004.

Larson and her mother drove into campus from the north side.

“I said, ‘This is where I want to go. This is awesome,’” Larson recalls on the verge of her final season as an SDSU soccer player.

“Something about it just felt right, and I had toured a bunch of schools and had never said that.

“Being from the Twin Cities, I never expected to go to school in South Dakota.”

Start of something big But in August 2005 she reported for practice with a large incoming freshman class and has had no regrets. By the season opener, Larson was in the starting lineup as a defender along with four other newcomers to Coach Lang Wedemeyer’s program.

She started all but one game that season and has started every game since.

Entering this year’s seventeen-match regular season, Larson has started fifty-four games and played 3,844 minutes. That places her eighth on the career ladder in games started and fifth in minutes played.

That means she has a chance to overtake Maggie Eilers, the leader in both categories (seventy-one games, 4,708 minutes).

“It would be cool to be compared to Maggie because she’s a great player,” Larson says of her teammate during her freshman and sophomore season.

Divots fly as Kelly Larson charges downfield with the ball during a 2006 game. Entering her senior season, Larson ranks fifth all-time in minutes played for SDSU women’s soccer.

Of course, it’s more than just durability that keeps Larson on the field. “Kelly is our general in the back. She’s the organizer, the communicator. She’s the person that drives the team,” Wedemeyer says.

Hopefully, all the way to the NCAA tournament.

Goals against and other goals The team gave up just fifteen goals in seventeen games, but Larson sees room for improvement.

“We’ll aim for half of games as shutouts and the rest of them nothing more than a goal,” Larson says. “Defense is really something we focus on as a team. If we have perfect defense, good things will happen from there.”

The 2007 squad went 9-4-4, the program’s first winning season since DI play began in 2004.

Larson doesn’t have specific personal goals. “I just want to be a good leader for the team, have as much success as I had last year, and set a good example for the [other] girls” on the team, she says.

DAVE GRAVES

A LOOK AT LARSON KELLY LARSON Position: Defender Height/uniform number: 5-4 / 14 Year: Senior

Prepared for success Larson has never been injured in college.

“I’ve been fortunate. I take care of myself. I wear my ankle braces in practice and take my ice baths” after early-season practices, she says.

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Major: English High school: Mahtomedi High School Hometown: Mahtomedi, Minnesota Activities outside soccer: English and Spanish Clubs, study abroad trip to Spain in 2007.

Offseason sport: Played ice hockey in high school and hopes to join the SDSU women’s team this winter.

Miscellaneous: Played 1,578 minutes in seventeen games last year, setting a school record for minutes in a season.

Quote: “I can’t imagine life without soccer after eating, breathing, and sleeping soccer for fifteen years.”

An academic three-peat Women’s basketball team continues to rule in classroom

Full-fledged DI, but planning continues SDSU became an active member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association September 1, 2008.

All rights and privileges of membership are now granted to the Jackrabbits. First and foremost is the right to compete for NCAA national championships in twenty sports (equestrian is yet to be an official NCAA championship). In addition, full services of the NCAA for Division I members and grants and revenue become available.

No longer will the state of South Dakota be the only state without at least one sport being classified as Division I. It took a passionate and relentless alumni/fan base, an entire university community, and a dedicated athletic staff to make this happen.

The work is far from over to reach the long-term goals of this move to Division I. In September we are sharing our proposed five-year Strategic Plan with the Intercollegiate Athletic Board, the Athletic Advisory Council, and the Champions Council.

The plan will outline our goals with specific proposals for scholarship increases, additional positions, facility development, programming enhancements, operation and equipment enhancements, and capital expenditures to meet these goals.

We will use the “feedback” we receive from our boards and councils to refine the plan and make our plans available to the public. Like all plans, we will review it annually and modify it to best serve our student-athletes.

As we move forward, let me thank you on behalf of our entire staff and student-athletes for your loyalty and patience these last five years. You have demonstrated love and care for this program through your personal support and generosity.

Fred Oien SDSU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

On July 15 it was announced that for the third consecutive season, South Dakota State led all divisions of women’s college basketball in team grade point average. Simply amazing.

In basketball terms, that’s a triple-double, a 10-to-1 assistto-turnover ratio, a night of going 10-for-10 from behind the arc, or that game winning, buzzer-beater that touches nothing but nylon. Such an accomplishment sends chills down the spines of Jackrabbit fans around the country.

Lucky? Well, the rabbit’s foot is certainly auspicious, but these young ladies are extremely passionate about what they do and very relentless in how they go about doing it. That formula is exactly what has led to such accomplishments. A formula that has made them champions.

Found entrenched in the attitudes of our student-athletes, staff, and fans is that same mentality and adage—Passionate.

Relentless. Champions.

Accolades like this one are one in a million . . . or one in 1,720 if you are counting the number of collegiate women’s basketball teams in the country. Take that number times three years, factor in the student-athletes that graduated and enrolled as freshman, factor in travel schedules and numerous other variables, and it might take a near-genius to figure out the actual odds of winning this award. Better yet, it might take a Jackrabbit.

The 480 student-athletes at the University carry an overall grade point average of 3.05 and pursue more than eighty different majors.

• SDSU’s equestrian team finished second in GPA among Division I teams in the country.

• The women’s cross-country team finished third.

• The men’s and women’s track and field teams both were in the top twenty.

• The list of SDSU sports ranking in the top 100 academically at the national level goes on and on. The Jackrabbits had 216 student-athletes honored on academic all-conference teams during the 2007-08 academic year and six academic all-American awards were also bestowed on these bright, young men and women.

The revenue generation side of me thinks that if NCAA rules permitted, I’d sell a sponsorship to Encyclopedia Britannica and sew the encyclopedia logo to the back of their jerseys; however, the true Jackrabbit fan in me is just proud that these young men and women shed sweat and tears in a jersey that signifies something much, much deeper . . . Jackrabbit athletics.

George Scialabra of the Boston Globe recently wrote, “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” Speaking of which, who could have imagined the on-court success that has accompanied the academic achievements of these young men and women. Conference championships, NCAA bids, professional draft picks, and the list goes on.

And the best part is . . . they’re not done yet. In the words of Coach (or should I say “Professor”) Aaron Johnston, “Don’t stop believing.”

Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks.

Mark Burgers ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 14 NO. 1 \ FALL 2008

DYKHOUSE STUDENT-ATHLETE CENTER

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497

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