Rt 2009 fall

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 14 NO. 1 \ FALL 2009

...AND HE TAKES THE PASS JUSTIN SELL LEADS CHARGE FOR NEW ERA IN ATHLETICS RABBIT FEVER OUTBREAK WOMEN’S SPORTS THROUGH THE YEARS

Past, present, and future Hello fellow Jackrabbits! I am so proud to have joined the Jackrabbit family and feel blessed to be part of a vibrant university and an athletic program that has such a strong tradition.

Being the “new guy,” I am often asked to comment on our plans for the future. However, in order to effectively plan for the future and develop quality strategic plans, I believe it is important for us to understand the past.

Past I have a great deal of respect for all of the athletic directors, coaches, student-athletes, and University personnel that have put their heart and soul into SDSU and Jackrabbit athletics. I am impressed by the longstanding support by our passionate and loyal fan base, all of whom continue to support us today. SDSU has been a nationally recognized athletic program for a lot of years.

We have had numerous national champions, all-Americans, professional athletes, league champions, all-sport league trophies, and academic recognition.

Stan Marshall took the lead at the national level to support equal opportunity for women’s athletics and was truly a trendsetter in the Title IX era. Harry Forsyth and Fred Oien built upon the attitude that SDSU would be leaders in managing a program with class, integrity, and the highest moral character.

In addition, we have won our fair share of games over the years. We have successfully made the transition to Division I athletics and have become a source of pride for the entire state. I feel a great deal of responsibility in making sure this program continues to honor the effort of all of those that came before us.

Present SDSU is in the second year of being eligible to participate in Division I NCAA championships. Last year, we won The Summit League Women’s All-Sport trophy, came in second for the overall All-Sport trophy, and won the league’s Sportsmanship Award.

Pretty impressive first year in The Summit League!

The women’s soccer team and women’s basketball team won The Summit League Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The football team is in the top twenty, and we are well on our way to setting all-time attendance records at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

We have a terrific staff, top-notch coaches, and high-achieving student-athletes. Our student-athletes have done an outstanding job in the classroom with a 3.1 overall grade point average, while excelling on the courts, fields, pools, and courses. In addition, our athletes behave well socially, support community service initiatives, and are great role models.

Every program we have is competitive, which gives us the very real opportunity to be the top athletic program in The Summit League. Work continues on the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center, which will help our student-athletes develop into Lifelong Champions. In other words, the future is bright!

Future The Athletic Department is aggressively positioning our program to be a source of state pride and to achieve national recognition for our athletic and academic success. We have developed new marketing, ticket, and Jackrabbit Club plans. Our future depends on the ability to increase ticket sales and add new Jackrabbit Club members.

We are currently at 865 members in the Jackrabbit Club and are generating $332,000 towards a $2.9-million annual scholarship bill. We must do better! Lastly, we are currently working on a facilities master plan, which includes looking at the feasibility of rebuilding Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and building a new indoor practice facility.

It is my sincere hope that you will feel a strong connection with our program because we display the same values and work ethic of our loyal and passionate fans. I want each of you to know that WE will achieve great things, but it will take the support of each and every person who has an affinity to SDSU. We know who we are, and we are excited to represent South Dakota State University. We are poised to have a fantastic year, and we hope to make you all proud!

Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks.

JustinSel

JUSTIN SELL DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 14 NO. 1 \ FALL 2009

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MEET THE NEW DIRECTOR

AD Justin Sell has been here more than enough time to get his feet wet. Find out which way he is swimming.

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A HERTIAGE HONED THROUGH NINE DECADES

A quick look at the eleven athletic directors who preceded Justin Sell.

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ACADEMICS REMAIN KEY

It’s easy to measure SDSU’s athletic program in the win-and-loss columns. A more significant, and equally successful one, is found in the classroom.

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SUCCESS BEYOND STATE

Ryan Berry, Kevin Robling, and Stacey Huss are going back to school this fall thanks to receiving a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

10 ATHLETES LEND A HAND

16 WOMEN’S SPORTS HISTORY — A SERIES

Major advances and key events through the years SDSU PRESIDENT David L. Chicoine DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Justin Sell ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR — SPORTS INFORMATION Jason Hove SDSU SPORTS INFORMATION ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ryan Sweeter ASSOCIATE AD/EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Mark Burgers EDITOR Andrea Kieckhefer, University Relations CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Graves, Kyle Johnson, Dana Hess, University Relations DESIGNER Colleen Lanchester-Raynie PHOTOGRAPHER Eric Landwehr, University Relations, Amanda Palluck, the Brookings Register Athletic Department South Dakota State University Box 2820, Brookings, SD 57007 Telephone: 1-866-GOJACKS Fax: 605/688-5999 Web site: www.gojacks.com

ABOUT THE COVER There’s a new quarterback at the helm of the SDSU Athletic Department. Justin Sell, who warmed up his arm during fall media day August 17, has been on the job as athletic director since May 29.

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.

2,200 copies printed by the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. PE069 10/09

It’s not listed on the schedules, but community service is a fulfilling part of the experience of an SDSU athlete.

12 RABBIT FEVER RUNS RABID The Jackrabbit species mutated itself in several interesting ways at the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in Lubbock, Texas.

15 IRON JACKS It takes a little more to be an Iron Jack, yet 10 percent of SDSU athletes met this weight-room standard during the 2008-09 academic year.

16 WOMEN’S SPORTS HISTORY Rabbit Tracks continues its look at women’s sports at SDSU and focuses this issue on swimming, basketball, soccer, and volleyball.

24 SUPPORT SPOTLIGHT Engineering Professor Mylo Hellickson has served the Athletic Department as the faculty representative, interim athletic director, and scholarship donor.

24 FALL PREVIEW SDSU’s first athletic competition was 120 years ago. There will be no tug-of-war this season, but this sneak peak gives Rabbit Tracks readers a grasp on the fall contests.

MEET THE NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

SDSU ‘good fit’ for new director of athletics

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lthough Justin Sell says he sleeps well at night, it’s hard to believe it’s peaceful rest considering the adrenalin rush he’s feeling these days.

Named only the twelfth director of athletics in SDSU history and the first non-State graduate to hold the position since the legendary Stan Marshall (1965-80), Sell is eager to complete initiatives already in place and is greatly looking forward to charting new ones.

Sell succeeds Fred Oien, who retired as the school’s longest serving director of athletics (1990-2009).

Beginning his duties May 29, Sell served as an athletic administrator at the University of Northern Iowa for the past ten years, including senior associate athletic director since 2006.

Born in Salem, Oregon, and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Sell earned his bachelor’s degree in sports management from Bowling Green State University in 1991, and a master’s degree in physical education/sports administration at Ohio State University in 1992.

Sell and his wife, Jennie, have four children: Abbie (13), Zach (12), Josh (9), and Eric (8).

Fresh after settling into his new surroundings, Sell took time to discuss his new job prior to overseeing his first sports season at the Jackrabbit helm.

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Describe your feelings being named SDSU’s director of athletics?

This is a wonderful school and a wonderful place. I’m very excited to be a part of this family, and I hope that other people can see what we have here.

I had pretty high expectations what SDSU and the people would be like when I first came, and I must say, I’ve been blown away—they are even better.

I really can’t wait to get after this thing.

I’m going to work my tail off and make it a greater place than it already is.

Justin Sell draws a chuckle from President David L. Chicoine when the former Northern Iowa senior associate athletic director is introduced to the public May 7.

True to his name, Sell plans to sell the SDSU athletic program to a broader audience, especially in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

After ten years at Northern Iowa, what attracted you to SDSU and why?

From a professional standpoint, this is a great growth opportunity for me because my experience matched what the position description was. From a personal standpoint, it’s the ability to bring my family to a town that we felt very comfortable with in terms of the nature of people, their work ethic, and value systems.

SDSU was a good fit for me and my family. Anytime you can match your professional goals with your personal goals you have hit the home run.

What are some of your short-term and long-term goals?

We need to generate more revenue.

So, one of the first things is to increase our game ticket sales. A different approach is to have our ticket office go from not just receiving ticket orders to actually help us sell season tickets, and the second piece, is to increase membership in the Jackrabbit Club.

We are putting the finishing touches to a whole new marketing plan. We have to be in the Sioux Falls market and we have to capture certainly the eastern side of the state because that’s where the population base is. Communicating with our fans in the western part of the state and attempting to get better press

coverage, especially in Rapid City, are also important parts to the plan.

We have to capitalize on the fact that we are the state school, both in terms of our size, who we are, and where we are going. We will get that message out to the people.

A bigger goal is a facility master plan involving a new football stadium and a multi-use indoor fieldhouse. I want to finish bleachers and pressboxes for softball and baseball, and of course finish the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. The building of the relationships to help raise the money to do these things is taking place now.

What was the state of the athletic department when taking over?

That’s one of the things that was so attractive about the position. Fred and the people before him have done such a good job with this program, and Fred, to take it from Division II to Division I and really do the backbreaking work to get through that process, and here we sit in our infancy of Division I athletics.

I don’t have to turn the world upside down in terms of fixing everything because this place is in great shape.

However, there are a few things we can do to make it better, to solidify our future, and give people pride in what we are doing.

We will be playing USD in basketball, but what about football?

With the Summit League accepting USD, I think it’s wonderful to re-establish the rivalry in basketball with an eye toward respect. Both of us want to beat each other real bad, but at the same time, finish the contest, shake hands, and walk away with mutual respect for one another.

Football is different because our schedule is pretty well set two, three, and four years in advance. But, we will play USD somewhere down the road, no question.

How would you describe your style of leadership?

I’m certainly not a micromanager.

I believe you hire great people and let them bring their expertise to the table.

In our first staff meeting I said that everybody is a valued employee, that opinions do matter, and their work is appreciated. I have no problem making a tough decision, but we will do everything as a family and make good quality decisions as a group based on good research and data.

I’m just really excited about taking our vision to our supporters. We need every person who is interested in supporting SDSU athletics to step up and help us to accomplish our goals.

KYLE JOHNSON

FALL 2009

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ATHLETIC DIRECTORS FROM THE PAST

“Great Leaders in a Great Program”

In late May, Justin Sell became the twelfth athletic director at SDSU. When former Athletic Director Harry Forsyth retired in 1980, the farewell program listed the ten athletic directors under the heading “Great Leaders in a Great Program.”

Continuing with that theme, Rabbit Tracks takes a brief look at the eleven who have gone before Sell.

Fred Oien

(1990-2009) A 1972 State graduate, Oien returned to campus in 1979 as the women’s golf coach and an associate professor in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He moved to the administrative side in 1981, when he became athletic business/ticket manager. Oien held that position until becoming athletic director.

His accomplishments include guiding the women’s athletic programs into national prominence,

Harry Forsyth (1980-1990)

The Redfield native spent more than 40 years at SDSU as student, athlete, coach, teacher, and administrator.

A 1951 State graduate, Forsyth served in the Korean War and returned to South Dakota State in 1955 to earn his master’s degree. He never left until retiring in 1990. He spent fifteen years as an assistant to Athletic Director Stan Marshall and succeeded his college classmate following Marshall’s death.

Stan Marshall (1965-1980)

A 1950 State graduate who also was an assistant football coach at his alma mater from 1957 to 1963, Marshall spent one season as the head football coach at Wayne State in Michigan before returning to SDSU as athletic director at age 38.

Among Marshall’s crowning achievements was the construction of the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Center. It was completed in 1973, just in time for SDSU to host the NCAA Division II 4

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particularly basketball and volleyball.

The basketball team won the Division II championship in 2003, the first national title in a women’s program, and reached the Elite Eight of Division II basketball for three consecutive years. The 2003 squad was led by tournament MVP Melissa Pater but is perhaps best remembered by a last-second three-

pointer by Stacie Cizek to force overtime in the semifinals.

Two-time all-American Shauna (Sturm) Brockmann lead the volleyball team to the national championship match in 2001 and school record setter Kristina Martin helped the 2007 team reach the regional tournament, the first SDSU squad to qualify for a Division I national tournament.

Early in his career Oien returned men’s and women’s tennis to the SDSU athletic program. In his latter years, women’s soccer and equestrian were added.

Oien also directed the University into Division I competition, which required a major increase in scholarships and a sharp jump in corporate sponsorships.

Oien, who officially retired in April, also was at the helm when funding was secured and construction was commenced on the $6-million Dykhouse StudentAthlete Center, which particularly addresses needs in the football program. It is to be completed later this fall.

Forsyth was athletic business manager until being promoted to assistant athletic director in 1970.

During Forsyth’s tenure as athletic director, SDSU set an NCAA Division II basketball playoff attendance record when 9,339 fans attended the 1985 SDSU – Cal State-Hayward game. On February 11, 1989, SDSU broke the

Frost Arena record with 9,456 fans for the Augustana game.

The 1984-85 team went on a postseason run that took the Jacks right to the national championship game, where Jacksonville prevailed 74-73.

During Forsyth’s AD term, women’s athletics was added to the North Central Conference, which was regarded as one of the best Division II conferences.

Previously, women played in a South Dakota league.

Axel “Ax” Bundgaard

National Wrestling Tournament for the first time.

The $3.7million facility was named after Marshall following his death June 14, 1980.

Marshall was president of the association in 1976-77 and served as secretary-treasurer of the National Collegiate Athletic Association the same year. He is the only one to have held those

positions simultaneously. He also served on the powerful NCAA television committee.

He also was instrumental in initiating national championships for Division II and III schools as well as helping initiate competitive women’s athletics on campus.

Marshall also originated the Beef Bowl during the football season and the Pork Classic during the basketball season as well as the NCC Holiday Basketball Tourney and NCC basketball playoffs.

(1961-1965)

Bundgaard, at 6-31/2, 210 lbs., was literally a big man on campus. The 1939 grad of Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska, arrived at State after serving as cross country coach and athletic director at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

He then became the chair of the Physical Education Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, until retiring in 1986.

Bundgaard was at the helm when Jim Iverson’s squad won the college division national championship as Sid Bostic hit a one-handed, midcourt jump shot.

It was the school’s fourth trip (also 1959, ’60 and ’61) to the national tournament under Iverson.

The 1961 team finished third behind prolific scorer Don Jacobsen, the tournament MVP. The award for the 1963 team went to Wayne Rasmussen, who would later achieve fame with the Detroit Lions.

Walter Schwank

Reuben B. “Jack” Frost

Schwank brought ideas that were carried out by others. He arrived at State from Coe College in Cedar Rapid, Iowa, with plans to build a new football stadium and basketball field house as well as continuing the development of the physical education program.

Schwank, an Iowan with twenty-six years coaching experience prior to SDSU, became the athletic director and HPER Department head at Montana State after one year at State.

He arrived from Bemidji State Teachers College and became director of the HPER Department and director of athletics as well as head basketball and baseball coach.

He spent seven years as basketball coach and guided his teams into the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball tournament in 1948 and 1951.

He coached baseball for two years.

During Frost’s leadership, the graduate program was added in 1953. The first master’s graduate earned his diploma in 1956, the same year Frost took a sabbatical to earn a doctorate at the University of Oregon.

One of Frost’s greatest accomplishments was the development of his staff, which included future athletic directors Marshall and Forsyth.

He left SDSU to become head of the Division of Health, Physical

Education and Recreation at Springfield (Mass.) College.

During his tenure at State, Frost oversaw some legendary coaches.

In football, Ralph Ginn lead the program for twenty-two years, producing a school record 113 wins and nine league titles.

In basketball, there was Sox Walseth, who achieved fame at the University of Colorado, and Jim Iverson, who had a 141-66 mark in eight and one-half seasons.

In track, there was Jim Emmerich, who later worked as a trainer with the Olympic program, and lead the State track team to the school’s first national title—the 1953 NAIA small-college championship.

McCrady arrived in fall 1940 from Hastings (Nebraska) College and became athletic director the next year. During those war years he found himself as director of HPER, director of athletics, and head coach of all varsity sports (football, basketball, and track).

In 1945-46, the first physical education major was authorized.

He left for the football coaching job at Kansas State.

At State, his basketball teams compiled a 70-70 record in seven seasons and his football teams went 11-17-3 in five seasons.

Robert Coffey

was designed to “qualify men and women for 1) P.E. teachers, 2) directors of play and recreation, 3) coaches in secondary schools, and 4) prospective county agents, home demonstration agents, and 4-H club leaders to give them training in recreation leadership.”

T.C. “Cy” Kasper

C.A. “Jack” West

Kasper produced a 33-22-3 mark in six seasons as a football coach, including a North Central Conference title in 1933. The team was boosted by “The Great” Weert Englemann, a 6-2, 185-pound Miller native who was a three-sport standout at State before graduating in 1930.

The engineering major went on to play four seasons with the Green Bay Packers and in 1928 was first alternate on America’s four-member Olympic decathlon delegation.

West resumed the basketball and football programs after a one-year hiatus due to World War I. He posted a 67-58 mark in seven basketball seasons (1919-26), including a 213 record in 1921-22.

In nine seasons (1919-27), his football teams went 44-17-9 and won NCC titles in 1922, ’24 and ’26. The 1922 squad was the inaugural NCC champion. His 1926 team was undefeated 8-0-3 and finished the year with a 9-3 win on Christmas Day at Hawaii University in a game officiated by coaching legend Knute Rockne.

On December 3, a cablegram from the University of Hawaii invited State to play in the Pacific. West, his wife, and eighteen players made the estimated 10,000-mile round trip. In terms of miles and days, it remains the longest trip ever made by an SDSU football team.

(1960-1961)

(1937-1941)

Coffey was unique for his era in that he didn’t serve as a head coach as well as being AD. He had been at Brookings High School before moving to SDSU. On the academic side, Coffey established a minor in physical education and added three courses—first aid, and scoutmanship I and II. According to a history of the HPER Department, the P.E. minor

R.A. “Red” Threlfall (1933-1937)

Threlfall produced a 17-19-2 mark as a football coach (1934-37) and a 21-22 mark as a basketball coach (1930-33).

Threlfall’s claim to fame is leading the Jackrabbit gridders to the school’s only win against the University of Wisconsin. The team beat the Badgers 13-6 in 1935.

It was the first time a North Central Conference team had beaten a Big Ten foe. Among the 18,000 in the stands in Madison,

Thurlo McCrady

(1947-1960)

Wisconsin, was prominent South Dakota State alumnus Charles Coughlin, who gave a pre-game pep talk and after the win told Coach Threlfall that he would pay for silk football pants for the team. The next season the team came out in gold silk pants.

(1941-1947)

(1928-1933)

SOURCES: SDSU media guides, The College on the Hill, and The History of the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Department at South Dakota State University.

(1918-1928)

DAVE GRAVES FALL 2009

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Tara Heiser, center, concentrates on PowerPoint notes in her general psychology class this summer. Heiser, a freshman from Watertown, is flanked by fellow freshmen Ashley Eide, left, of Sioux Falls Washington, and Steph Paluch, of Pierre. Players typically take summer classes to reduce the academic load during the season.

Success in classroom important for student athletes While the Jackrabbit women’s basketball team was making its name as a new force in Division I, it was also quietly building a legacy of excellence in the classroom. Like all team endeavors, there was a coach spurring on the Jacks’ academic efforts. That coach was Laurie Melum.

During Melum’s tenure with the Jackrabbits as associate women’s basketball coach and academic coordinator, the team led all divisions of women’s college basketball in team grade point average for three consecutive seasons. With that kind of track record, it was fitting that Melum was chosen in July to serve as SDSU’s first-ever assistant athletic director for academics.

In her new role, Melum will oversee academics for student-athletes on all twenty-one of SDSU’s teams. She’ll serve as a coordinator to help with Laurie Melum support services, check grades, organize coach’s study tables, and monitor the classroom progress of student-athletes.

“In my role, I’ll be bringing everybody together on the same page,” Melum says.

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Melum’s position is mandated and partially funded by the NCAA, just one of the signs that the move to Division I has had an affect on the classroom as well as the playing field.

“With the move to Division I, the standards really do heighten,” according to Mary Kay Helling, associate vice president for Academic Affairs. “It’s at a higher level.”

Helling notes that student-athletes are spread through at least 90 percent of the programs at State rather than most of them in the same course of study.

“It’s good that there’s a cross-representation, which is very healthy,” Helling says.

While enrolled in more than eighty different majors, SDSU student-athletes manage to acquit themselves well in the classroom.

At the end of the last fall semester, student-athletes had a cumulative 3.04 grade point average.

One place those student-athletes will be found is the classroom of economics Professor Patrick Lyons. Lyons helps recruit prospective student-athletes who are interested in SDSU and the business economics major. As a result, just about all of Lyons’ academic advisees are football players.

“SDSU athletes are not dumb jocks,” Lyons says. “They are quality young men who are good students.”

Lyons emphasizes the need for time management with the student-athletes he advises, noting that their classroom schedule has to be balanced with practice, games, travel, and weight room sessions.

“They don’t have much time,” Lyons says.

Another faculty member impressed with the way student-athletes use their time is journalism Assistant Professor Matthew Cecil.

He says the transition period to Division I status could have been particularly daunting for “SDSU ATHLETES ARE NOT student-athletes as their teams traveled the country DUMB JOCKS. THEY ARE looking for opponents.

QUALITY YOUNG MEN WHO “I always try to remind ARE GOOD STUDENTS.” people that those big, strong athletes they’re ECONOMICS PROFESSOR watching are eighteen- to PATRICK LYONS twenty-two-year-olds,” Cecil says. “Imagine the distractions on long road trips with your friends at that age. And then imagine the discipline it takes to sit down and study in a hotel in New Jersey or Kentucky or California.”

Classroom progress measured by Academic Progress Rate ‘

Graduation rates aren’t the only way that the NCAA can track the academic progress of Division I athletes. It has also developed the Academic Progress Rate, a system that provides a semester-by-semester snapshot of classroom performance.

Using a point system, the Academic Progress Rate measures both the progress of the individual athlete and the composite score of the entire team. If a team’s rate falls below the 925 benchmark, it could face sanctions that include practice restrictions, scholarship losses, and bans on postseason play. The 925 benchmark equates to about a 60 percent graduation rate.

A new NCAA rule requires a coach’s rate to follow him throughout his career.

“APR shows how strongly committed they are to academics,” says Kathy Heylens, associate athletic director-compliance and senior women’s administrator.

According to the 2008-09 Jackrabbit Athletics Annual Report, the average APR in Division I is 967 out of a perfect 1,000. This means that student-athletes are earning 96.7 percent of possible points in a typical academic term.

In the last academic year, eight SDSU teams tallied scores at or above 967. The Jackrabbit men’s golf team scored a perfect 1,000 for the second straight year.

Other SDSU teams with rates above the Division I average were the women’s cross country, 981; women’s golf and track and field-indoor, 980; women’s track and field-outdoor, 978; women’s basketball and soccer, 974; and women’s volleyball, 969.

DANA HESS

While SDSU’s athletic programs emphasize the importance of academics, often it is the student-athletes themselves who stress excellence in the classroom.

Kathy Heylens, associate athletic director-compliance, notes that the move to Division I had some people believing that the recruiting standards would change at State as the emphasis would be on recruiting athletes regardless of their academic skills.

“It is a priority and a preference that our coaches go out and recruit the best student-athletes,” Heylens says, with an emphasis on “student.”

That’s another area where Melum, the new assistant athletic director for academics, has some expertise. In addition to her other coaching roles, she was the recruiting coordinator for the women’s basketball team.

“That’s one of the biggest keys,” according to Melum, “recruiting students who want to do well, not just on the field or court, but in the classroom, too.”

DANA HESS LEFT: Economics Professor Pat Lyons says all indicators show that the SDSU student-athlete is outperforming others in the classroom.

FALL 2009

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NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships SDSU has had a total of thirty-three recipients in the forty years of the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Program.

• John Thomas, basketball, 1968-69; • Don Trapp, wrestling, 1969-70 • Stan Opp, wrestling, 1972-73 • Dave Thomas, basketball, 1972-73 • Michael Engels, wrestling, 1973-74 • George Baker Jr., gymnastics,1976-77 • Chuck Loewen, football, 1979-80 • Paul Kippley, football, 1980-81; • Dan Sonnek, football, 1987-88; • Tara Tessier, basketball, 1987-88; • Paul Koenig, wresting, 1989-90; • Laurie Kruse, baskeball, 1990-91; • Christy Young, cross country/ track and field, 1990-91; • Jeff Booher, basketball, 1991-92; • Kiri Johnson, cross country/ track and field, 1992-93; • Brian Loeffler, wrestling, 1992-93; • Jodi Bergemann, women’s basketball, 1993-94; • Jake Hines, football, 1994-95 • Jason Sempsrott, basketball, 1996-97; • Londa Vander Wal, track and field, 1998-99; • Casey Estling, basketball, 1999-2000; • Rose Ebnet, volleyball, 2000-01; • Josh Ranek, football, 2001-02; • Tyler Bryant, wrestling, 2002-03; • Scott Connot, football, 2003-04; • Ashley Kalina, softball, 2004-05; • Brad Lowery, cross country/ track and field, 2005-06; • Heather Seiler, basketball, 2005-06; • Becka Mansheim, cross country/ track and field, 2006-07; • Megan Vogel, basketball, 2006-07 • Ryan Berry, football, 2008-09; • Kevin Robling, football, 2008-09; • Stacy Huss, track, 2008-09.

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Athletes realize success beyond careers at SDSU Three more earn prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

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iscipline and dedication brand most successful college athletes, and at SDSU those qualities carry over into the classroom.

During the past school year, three Jackrabbits earned the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, a $7,500 one-time award. SDSU athletes have been regular recipients of the award since 1969, but this is the first time to have three in one academic year or two from one sport (football).

Ryan Berry and Kevin Robling learned of their honors in March. Track athlete Stacy Huss was awarded her scholarship in July.

Berry, a record-setting quarterback, entered the SDSU Accelerated Nursing program in Sioux Falls in late August after graduating in May. Robling graduated in December and already is at work on a research project with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Huss, a May graduate, began law school in late August.

While their stories are unique, each understands the NCAA television tagline “There are over 380,000 student-athletes, and most of us go pro in something other than sports.”

Berry says, “The chances of making it as an athlete [at the professional level] are pretty slim.”

Consequently, coach John Stiegelmeier emphasized being a student first and an athlete second, Berry recalls. Like each of the fifty-eight NCAA postgraduate recipients who are awarded each season, success is found both as a student and an athlete.

Scholarship criteria is holding a 3.2 grade point average and performing with distinction on a varsity team.

The reality is that only the most elite of student-athletes earn the scholarships.

Huss posted a 3.97 gpa while majoring in sociology and prelaw. She has her name on four school records. Berry’s 3.89 gpa in biology stands alongside eight school records.

Robling built a 3.82 gpa while providing the protection for Berry to set those records.

“These athletes serve as great role models for what we envision as a studentRobling athlete at SDSU,” says Mylo Hellickson, who as faculty athletics representative to the NCAA, formally nominated Huss, Berry, and Robling.

The initiative to see that these athletes have a chance to compete for the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship begins with the coach.

Offensive coordinator Luke Meadows “really pushed for it.

I think he was the go-getter of it all,” says Robling, who learned that he might get a shot at the scholarship when Stiegelmeier approached him in the summer before his senior year to confirm his plans to go to graduate school.

Those plans hadn’t wavered since Robling was in middle school.

Ryan Berry looks downfield in a game against Western Illinois.

Stacey Huss competes in the SDSU Twilight Meet at Brookings High School April 22.

It was the first home meet in a decade. This also was the first time SDSU had three students earn NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships in one academic year.

“At age 10 I wanted to be a veterinarian.

When I was a little older we went to a nature park and they were talking about ducks” and the work of a wildlife biologist, he recalls.

At that point, Robling, who had been raising ducks since age five, changed his mind from being a vet to being a waterfowl biologist.

His focus did change species while at college. Robling’s training is with large mammals, specifically white-tailed deer.

Berry’s biology degree has prepared him to study two-legged mammals. His plans are to graduate from the Accelerated Nursing program in August 2010, spend a year in the field, and then enter nurse anesthetist school.

He entered State with plans of becoming a doctor but switched focus after learning its demands.

“The nurse anesthetist provides the best opportunity to provide for the family as well as be there for my family,” Berry says.

He has had to keep family in mind throughout his college career. Berry married classmate Caitlin Hiedeman July 10, 2004, the summer after graduating from Watertown High School. They have two children—

Carter, who turns five in December, and Brooklyn, who was born July 30.

But rather than being a distraction, Berry says having a family was motivation to hit the books.

“I wanted to succeed academically to provide for them in the end. If I was just a single guy, I might not have been as focused,” Berry says. If he had been single, he might have spent more time playing Nintendo or going downtown to the bars. Instead, he prioritized and “kept things in perspective.

“I keep telling people I’m the oldest 23year-old in the world.”

While Berry doesn’t have any gray hair, he does have three postgraduate scholarships that he can use to finance his education in the Accelerated program and anesthetist school.

In December 2008, Berry received an $18,000 scholarship through the National Football Foundation and in April received a $5,000 scholarship through the college athletic directors association.

Being able to succeed as a family man, scholar, and athlete helped his application to stand out in those scholarship awards, Berry believes.

“You don’t see it very often. It’s not the norm. . . . [But] people see you can still succeed,” says Berry, whose athletic success include career marks for completions, attempts, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He set school and conference records with seven touchdown passes versus Illinois State.

Huss ran on three record-setting relay teams as well as clocking the fastest 400-meter hurdle race in SDSU history, and only had one B in her college career, but she didn’t consider herself suitable for the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

“The only track athletes I knew who got the scholarship were Brad Lowery and Becka Mansheim. I never put myself in the same category [athletically] as them,” says Huss, a 2005 graduate of Stanley County High School.

Lowery and Mansheim were both Division I independent champions.

Huss, despite her success, never met the standards to qualify for the Division I regional championships.

But her coach, Rod DeHaven, thought the Fort Pierre native was well deserving.

For the last two years, Huss has interned in the Division of Criminal Investigation Statistical Analysis in Pierre doing computer entry work. “I really liked working there.

I might possibly come back later as an attorney,” says Huss, who began the threeyear law program at the University of South Dakota in late August.

She credits Pat Lyons, a lawyer and economics professor, for steering her toward law school after taking a couple of his classes.

Thanks to the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and aid received from the USD Law Program, “my first year will be fully covered,” Huss says.

Berry undoubtedly speaks for all three athletes when he says that the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships are “just a big blessing. It’s amazing to know there is that kind of aid out there if you work hard both as a student and as an athlete.”

DAVE GRAVES

FALL 2009

9

COMMUNITY SERVICE — a lasting college experience

C

ommunity service might not immediately come to mind when reminiscing about college life.

However, it ranks right up there with game-winning scores, memorable road trips, and creating lasting friendships.

“When we went to the Black Hills Children’s Home, the kids just lit up when we got there and were so excited to get out and play,” says Jordan Paula, a senior running back from Brookings.

“I felt bad for the workers who had to calm them down when we left,” he adds.

“But it’s those kinds of experiences that make all the time in the weight room, classroom, and on the field worthwhile.”

In April, Paula and his SDSU football teammates bused to Rapid City for a MAD (Making a Difference) tour. They conducted a scrimmage and youth clinic, saw patients at Rapid City Regional Hospital, visited the Children’s Home Society, and went to Mount Rushmore.

The Rapid City outing offers a small glimpse of the vast amount of important community service work and outreach activities undertaken by SDSU student-athletes and their counterparts across the country.

Community service endeavors are organized by individual teams as well as the structured Student-Athlete Advisory Committee; both entities report and schedule activities with each other. Mandated by the NCAA, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, commonly referred to as SAAC, serves as a communication link between student-athletes and administrators.

AbOvE: The softball team delivered baked goods to the Brookings Fire Department September 11, 2008.

LEFT: Bo Helm and Rodkeem Matthews visited patients at Rapid City Regional Hospital as part of the team’s West River trip April 17.

Part of college experience The committee’s mission is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity, protecting student-athlete welfare, and fostering a positive student-athlete image.

And, “total image” is what best describes Jackrabbit student-athletes. Not only do fans laud their efforts on the field, they equally value their outreach activities away from competition.

10

RABBIT TRACKS

“Community service is a big part of their experience as a student-athlete and being involved in the community,” says Beth Clarke, senior secretary and SAAC advisor. “It’s really about a relationship between both groups of people.”

SAAC consists of two elected athletes from each of the twenty-one SDSU sports, but many more end up joining the group.

Not only do members meet weekly to discuss NCAA developments regarding rules, regulations, and compliance issues, most of their attention is devoted to planning upcoming community service projects.

Viewed as role models While SAAC is student-athlete run, team community service is organized by that particular coaching staff.

For example, the softball team has done bake sales for troops and the volleyball team has volunteered to help out in gym class at Brookings elementary schools.

The football team takes part in numerous activities, either on their own or through SAAC. Their influence is felt overseas as well with the Haiti solar oven project. Recently, four football players unloaded a truck full of boxes containing lids and oven components to be shipped to the Caribbean country.

In recent years, a commitment to community service projects has been added to the criteria necessary to earn a varsity football letter.

“We’ve been blessed with an opportunity to play a college sport and many people look to athletes as role models,” says Paula, SAAC’s vice president. “Being able to reach out to kids has been the highlight of my time here at SDSU. “If we can make one person smile at a school or camp that was maybe having a bad day, I feel that service project was worth it,” adds Paula. “When people think about SDSU athletics, we want them to think of us as something special.”

Throughout the year, SAAC organizes events such as: • The annual Halloween penny carnival with proceeds benefiting the local Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

• Conducting food and clothing drives for the needy.

• Tutoring students at local schools as part of the Brookings Youth Mentoring Progam.

• A campuswide cleanup day.

• Toys for tots during Christmas that benefits Project Joy. • Free youth basketball, football, and soccer clinics.

• Take a kid to a game—where a student-athlete takes a middle school student to a game, hangs out with them, and returns them home.

Food fight to the finish Highlighting community service work in 2008-09 was the Summit League food fight project between all league schools during January of the basketball season.

In a contest where athletes from all sports participated, the idea was to see which school could raise the most food that was either donated by people coming to the games or going out into the neighborhoods to collect items.

In a close finish, and much to the dismay of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, Oakland University nudged SDSU by a mere 105 pounds, 4,299 to 4,194, out of more than 14,000 pounds the league collected as a whole.

“We thought we were in first,” relates Clarke. “The hardest part was we didn’t

know where we stood until April because every school was assigned different weeks to raise food.

“It was a great project, though,” she adds. “We had a lot of food for one month, and we basically overloaded the Brookings Food Pantry!”

Service benefits everyone Clarke is always amazed at the willingness of student-athletes to freely give and commit to service projects.

“The athletes are always so eager to participate,” she says. “They would do something once a week if time allowed.”

According to Ketty Cornemann, senior member of the Jacks’ basketball team and SAAC president, community service is beneficial in several important ways.

“Getting involved in the community is a great way to give back to those who support you and your team,” she says. “The support the community provides helps make the transition from being a high school student to a college student much easier and enjoyable.

“Community service not only benefits the person receiving the service but it also benefits the volunteer,” she adds. “When our basketball team does community service projects together we always seem to bond and grow more as a team. The experiences we’ve had have been rich for everyone involved.”

KYLE JOHNSON

LEFT: The softball team conducted a clinic for about thirty Brookings girls October 22, 2008.

FALL 2009

11

RABBIT

FEVER Outbreak strikes wide variety of fans in Lubbock

What’s a Jackrabbit fan LOOK like?

Well, if you’re SDSU junior Tyler Trageser you’ve got a bit of potbelly, but no one notices your love handles because of the giant blue “S” painted your chest.

If you’re grandmother Suzie Kindopp, you’re wearing a blue fleece jacket over your Jackrabbit T-shirt and got a permanent before making the trip to Lubbock, Texas.

As evidenced at the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament in Lubbock, Jackrabbit fans come in all shapes, ages, and locations.

Although they generally only come in two colors—yellow or blue—what they will do in the support of the Yellow and Blue manifests itself in a rainbow of logic-defying acts.

For instance, there is Trageser and his buddies—Granger Maranell, Jake Johnson, and Garrett Davis. They drove to Lubbock after classes on Monday.

Sixteen hours on the road and then they walked into United Sports Arena without their shirts. “We’ve never done anything this crazy before,” says Johnson, a sophomore from Orange City, Iowa, who had a bold blue “D” painted over the yellow paint on his chest.

Davis says an uncontainable strain of ’Rabbit fever struck them while watching the Texas Christian game at Maranell’s house. The outbreak caused a spur-of-the-moment decision to make the trip to Texas.

“We figured it was the chance of a lifetime. SDSU is in the national spotlight. We’ve got to support them,” Davis says after hamming it up for the ESPN television camera prior to the start of the March 24 second-round game against the second-seeded Baylor Bears.

Granger Maranell, far left, lets it be known how far the group traveled for the March 24 game against Baylor. He is joined in the stands before the regional final by, from left, Jake Johnson, Tyler Trageser, and Garrett Davis.

TOP LEFT: Traveling from Yankton to support their sister, Ketty Cornemann, at the NCAA Regional Championship game against Baylor are, from left, Kami, 10, Chloe, 15, and Cooper, 7, as well as Adam Fritz, a senior engineering major from Colman.

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RABBIT TRACKS

Lyman County has less than 4,000 residents, but six of them were in Lubbock for the 2009 women's basketball regional championships. Pictured, from left, are Myron and Suzie Kindopp, Mary Jo Garnos and Meta Halverson.

Missing from this photo is Garnos' and Halverson's daughters, who also were sporting rabbit ears.

Jolene (Johnson) and Brad Johnson, below, are 1990 State graduates now living in Lubbock, Texas, where he is on the faculty at Texas Tech. They followed the team's progress this season and were impressed with the women's work ethic.

A chronic case

Kindopp could be described as having a chronic case of ’Rabbit fever.

She has been able to identify how she contracted ’Rabbit fever. Cody Volmer, from Kindopp’s home territory, Lyman County, played for the Jackrabbit men from 1998 to 2001. “We started going to games then, and we never quit,” Kindopp says of her and her husband’s attendance history.

Myron and Suzie Kindopp started watching the women’s games during that era and “got hooked when they won the national Division II championship” in 2003, she says.

The Kindopps, semiretired ranchers from Reliance, went to that title drive with their son, Kelsey ’97 and his friend, Aaron Koosman ’01. They were together again for the 2009 tournament push. Unlike Trageser and friends, this Jackrabbit quartet split the sixteen-andone-half-hour drive into two days.

For the last three years, the Kindopps have been driving to Jackrabbit home games and this year also went to the Summit League tournament in Sioux Falls.

But those winter trips to Brookings weren’t as demanding as one might think. During the winter, the Kindopps live in Watertown.

“We lived in Arizona for five winters and we didn’t like it. We moved north so we could watch the Jacks,” Kindopp says with a smile.

The fact that their other two children and five grandchildren live in Watertown may have had some influence.

Mary Jo Garnos can also pinpoint her outbreak of ’Rabbit fever.

Her niece is redshirt freshman Jill Young. That was enough also to affect her 13-year-old daughter, Chesney, as well as her friend, Haley Halverson, 13, and Haley’s mom, Meta, all of Lyman County.

Theirs was an acute case of ’Rabbit fever. Perhaps it could be blamed on arriving in Lubbock at 3:15 a.m.

Sunday after leaving the day before following the seventh-grade girls’ victorious performance in a Rotary Club-sponsored basketball tournament in Valentine, Nebraska.

At any rate, they showed up in United Sports Arena with painted blue whiskers, little black bunny noses, and velvet rabbit ears from the Easter section at a dollar store. They had to make two stops to get the rabbit ears. At the first store, they were sent to the electronics section.

The crew in the Oistad fun bus had quite a trip as well—eighteen hours from Minneapolis where they met the plane carrying Meredith Oistad, younger sister of senior Stacie Oistad. She flew from Phoenix to Minneapolis so she could gain “good bonding” with the family.

Their karoke-singing group included the Oistads’ parents, Lorrie and Jeff; a brother, Marcus; his fiancée, Katie Schlangen; Stacie’s fiancé, Nik Aamlid; and a friend, Ryan Herm. >>

An

acute

case

FALL 2009

13

Demand for season tickets makes big leap

Part of Stacie Oistad's crew ribs >> A couple days out of the fun bus ESPN's Trey Wingo for not did nothing to temper their ’Rabbit fever. properly identifying the home In fact, attending the Texas Christian state of the Jackrabbits. game on Sunday appeared to worsen Pictured, from left, are Nik the condition.

Aamlid, Oistad's finance; Ryan When they arrived back at the United Herm; and Marcus Oistad, Sports Arena on Tuesday evening, Stacie's brother.

Schlangen had painted the faces of Aamlid, Herm, and Marcus Oistad. The guys, who previously never had ’Rabbit fever manifest itself in face painting, also took a shot at ESPN studio host Trey Wingo.

Their sign reminded him it is “South Dakota” State. Wingo erroneously called the team San Diego State and South Carolina State on different occasions.

Crossinggeographic borders The Jackrabbit fan club in Texas also included a fair number of SDSU alumni living in Texas as well as Texans who became tainted with ’Rabbit fever. That list included Craig and Michelle Gilbert of Stamford, who drove 150 miles to attend the tournament.

They came Sunday night simply “to watch good basketball and became Jacks fans,” Craig Gilbert says.

On Tuesday evening they were back at United Sports Arena with the sign “Texans for SDSU.” He notes, “We were impressed by their team defense and offense. We like their fans too. They’re a lot more fun than most schools and their mascot is awesome too.”

Another Texan who contracted ’Rabbit fever during her brief exposure to SDSU was Dana Grace of Shallowater.

She wrote of her new “disease” in a letter to the editor of the Brookings Register and signed herself as “a long-time Texas Tech Lady Raider fan turned avid SDSU Lady Rabbit fan.”

DAVE GRAVES

14

RABBIT TRACKS

SDSU Athletic Department officials are hoping the success of the women’s basketball team will translate to the box office.

During the 2008-09 season, there were 1,200 season-ticket holders for men’s and women’s basketball games, a number that has been slowing rising during the last few years.

“Overall, we’ve increased each year in basketball and football since I’ve been here,” says Christi Williams, who has been the ticket manager for the last four years.

With the addition of single-game ticket buyers, the women’s program was able to average 2,803 persons per game. That ranks forty-fourth among Division I schools, just behind the University of Washington in Seattle, which averaged 2,865.

The nation’s leader was national powerhouse Tennessee with 14,000 per game. National champion Connecticut was second with 10,514.

The only smaller schools ahead of SDSU in attendance were Indiana State (4,100), Old Dominion (3,597), and Montana (3,596).

Frost Arena, in its current configuration, seats 6,500, so there is plenty of room for bigger crowds. However, the number of available reserved seats is dwindling, Williams says. Therefore, the department will sell general admission season tickets for 2009-10.

They will sell for $235 plus a required minimum donation of $25 to the Athletic Department, she reports. Purchasers of these tickets will get the same percentage break on the per-game cost of tickets as reserved ticket holders do, Williams says. Purchasers also are able to accumulate priority points for things like giving history and years as a ticket holder, which allow ticket holders to upgrade their seats later.

Williams says new season tickets often come from people who have gradually been buying more singlegame tickets.

“We’ve definitely had an increase in the number of people calling about tickets after the Summit League and NCAA tournaments,” Williams says. Season-ticket renewals began June 1, about the same time the schedule for the 2009-10 season was released.

Success on court pushes numbers in the bleachers

For ticket information, call the ticket office at (605) 6885422 or 1-866- GO JACKS or go to GoJacks.com.

DAVE GRAVES

AbOvE, FROm LEFT: Wide receiver Brandon Gant, vaulter/sprinter Brittany Garner, offensive lineman Ryan McKnight—all Iron Jacks.

S

tudent-athletes know all about competition. First they compete to make the team. Then they compete to start. Once they’re starters, they compete to keep that job.

One elite group at SDSU takes competition a step further, achieving high standards for membership through demonstrating excellence in the weight room.

In its third year, Iron Jacks was created by Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Nathan Moe as a performance-based award for varsity student-athletes. Performance standards can vary by sport but generally include the power clean—an explosive lift of weight from the floor to the shoulder—the squat, the bench press, and a vertical jump.

As an example, men’s basketball players who want to earn the title of Iron Jack must achieve a power clean of 247.5 pounds, a squat of 375 pounds, a bench press of 250 pounds and a vertical jump of 30 inches or higher.

In order to become an Iron Jack, studentathletes must achieve all four standards in one testing period each year. “They can’t just be good in one area,” Moe says.

The workouts athletes go through to achieve those standards will, according to Moe, help them be better athletes by being more explosive and powerful in their sports and help them avoid injuries.

“We want it to be difficult to achieve,” says Moe. Last year’s forty-one Iron Jacks represented about 10 percent of the more than 400 varsity student-athletes at SDSU. “It’s right about where we want it,” Moe said of the membership. “It’s meant to honor

Student-athletes earn special status in Iron Jacks IF I CAN DO WELL IN ONE AREA, LIKE LIFTING, THEN I CAN DO WELL IN OTHER AREAS SUCH AS ACADEMICS AND SWIMMING..”

SARA OLENICH, SWIMMER

those who have met the standards and motivate others to work toward achieving that goal. I’ve heard athletes say, ‘That’s my goal. I want to become an Iron Jack.’”

The tangible rewards for being in Iron Jacks are few. Members get a T-shirt and a copy of a group photo poster that’s also displayed in the weight room. More importantly, they get the pride of a job well done and an increase in confidence that carries beyond the playing field.

“Being a member of the Iron Jacks has given me more confidence on the field and it has taught me that if I want to become the best I have to work harder than I have before,” says Ryan McKnight, a junior on the football team.

McKnight’s teammate Brandon Gant, a sophomore, agrees that being a member of Iron Jacks has helped his confidence. “It has helped me set and reach goals that I know are possible,” Gant says. “It gives you a lot of confidence as an athlete.”

The confidence earned in Iron Jacks can carry over into daily life, according to senior swimmer Sara Olenich. “It’s a good feeling to know that there’s something that you are exceptional at and that confidence easily transfers to other areas of my life,” Olenich says. “I figure that if I can do well in one area, like lifting, then I can do well in other areas such as academics and swimming.”

As he talks about Iron Jacks on a mid-June afternoon, Moe estimates that there are as many as 140 SDSU athletes working out during the summer in Brookings. Those workouts have to be accomplished within the rules and regulations set by the NCAA. “All of our student-athletes deserve a ton of credit,” Moe says. “They have to practice time management. They have a lot of things tugging at them from school, work, practice, lifting, meetings, and just having a social life.”

At the Division I level, student-athletes need to make a year-round commitment to training. Usually student-athletes will get a two- or three-week break after the end of their season, then it’s back to the weight room.

“Iron Jacks is a great goal to work toward for many athletes,” according to senior Brittany Garner, a sprinter and pole vaulter on the track team. “It’s an exclusive club that you can only achieve membership in through working hard outside your sport’s practice.”

DANA HESS FALL 2009

15

WOMEN’S

SPORTS HISTORY A SERIES

Rabbit Tracks takes a deeper look at women’s sports

W

hen Ron Lenz began his twenty-nine-year reign in the Sports Information Office in 1977, SDSU boasted ten women’s athletic teams.

Quite a change from 1970, when he graduated from State and worked as a student sports information assistant. Then it was just the men who merited the attention of the Sports Information Office.

Title IX, the women’s rights movement, and forward-thinking SDSU administrators literally changed the shape of athletics at State. That foundation has made it possible for today’s Jackrabbit ladies to play center stage.

Not all the sports played back in 1977 are still in the athletic program. Field hockey and gymnastics were dropped after neighboring schools dropped their programs.

Sports like tennis and golf were dropped because of financial concerns and later brought back by former Athletic Director Fred Oien, who also oversaw the creation of soccer and equestrian, and, most recently, the enhancement of locker and team rooms for women’s teams.

The following articles note some of the highlights of the current programs as well as providing glimpses into the sports.

Editor’s note: The focus of these stories is not to include every record, championship, or top performer, but to give a glimpse into the program from the perspective of some who helped shape it.

Other women’s sports will be covered in future issues.

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RABBIT TRACKS

SWIMMING Erickson witnesses a generation of change For Brad Erickson, the good ole days are today.

Erickson, who has completed thirty-three years of coaching the SDSU men’s and women’s swimming teams, can remember the old days and they don’t hold a candle to today.

“I’ve told people, for as long as I’ve been here, the last few years have been the most enjoyable. When you have some funds, you can go out and recruit. Before, as a walk-on program, you would hope people would stay out.

“Now we can be competitive in the conference. Our goal is to move up each year and that’s what we have done,” he says.

In the 2008-09 season, the women’s team set thirteen school records en route to matching its 2008 third-place finish in the conference meet.

The difference between what is and what has been can best be explained using a financial ledger. When the Jacks were competing in the North Central Conference, Erickson had one-third of one scholarship to divvy up. Now he has twelve on the women’s side.

Mallory Onisk competes in the butterfly in a meet at SDSU.

It’s a family thing

“EACH YEAR, THE LEVEL OF

That has allowed him to bring in swimmers like Mallory Onisk, a record-setting senior from Bear, Delaware.

While a talented swimmer, Onisk wasn’t exactly a national recruit. Her mother, Julie (Kenefick) Onisk ’81 swam at State from 1977 to 1980. The SDSU swimming program had just gotten out of diapers when Kenefick, a Brookings native, started at State.

SDSU men’s swimming began in 1968.

Erickson ’74 joined the team in 1970 and found “there were some women who were interested [in swimming]. They competed with the men.” By 1975 the women had their own team. In 1976 Erickson became the program’s second full-time coach.

Until the natatorium on campus opened in January 1973, the collegians swam at the Brookings High School pool, which opened in 1967.

That’s where Kenefick could be found.

“Everybody kind of knew everybody. That’s where the notion of swimming in college came,” recalls Kenefick, who now works as a diabetes educator/dietitian in a large endocrinology practice in Delaware.

Her teammates at State included Beth (Anderson) Kaspar ’80, who became the first SDSU woman all-American in spring 1977.

She also was a 1978 all-American.

Anderson, now a civilian employee for the Department of Defense near Washington, D.C., says she didn’t comprehend the significance of her all-American status. She does remember her first national meet as the “three longest days of my life because I wasn’t used to competing at that level.

GIRLS HAS PROGESSED. THIS YEAR, TIMEWISE, IT IS VERY COMPETITIVE.” MALLORY ONISK, SENIOR SWIMMER

“You wanted to do well, so you need to stay focused, you need to stay concentrated. It was hard to stay balanced for those three days.”

That intensity is in stark contrast to when, back in Brookings, Erickson handed the team “some new suits and said, ‘Go try them on.’

We went downstairs and tried them on. The swimsuit fit on exactly one thigh and the rest was a stretch job. We just sat down and laughed and laughed,” Anderson says.

Replacing the nylon Speedos with the all-Lycra models was just one example of creating team camaraderie. Others were more grave.

Maturity in the face of crisis In fall 1978, Kenefick’s sister, Kari, joined the team and became a national qualifier. By the time Julie Kenefick was a junior, there were three Keneficks on the team. However, William, a freshman, was killed in a December car crash that spared the lives of three other teammates.

At that time, Erickson, 27, wasn’t much older than the swimmers he was coaching.

Julie Kenefick credits Erickson for helping her and Kari as well as their teammates to work through the tragedy.

“The benefits of being part of athletics is not only swimming and getting the yards in, but sometimes the less obvious pieces are how people help you develop as a human being, as a leader on the team,” Julie Kenefick says.

A couple weeks later the Kenefick girls and their teammates loaded into cars to drive to Mexico for winter training. “I wouldn’t say he took us under his wings, but he gave people the space … and had an unspoken confidence in his swimmers that they could work through whatever they needed to,” Kenefick recalls.

“Brad's involvement with kids goes deeper than their athletic ability,” she adds.

A new generation It was because of such memories that she had no qualms about sending her daughter 1,400 miles away from home to go to college.

Mallory Onisk says SDSU was not on her initial list of college choices. But in the summer before her senior year, she and her mother made a trip to Brookings to visit father and grandfather Don Kenefick, a retired SDSU plant science professor.

“Mom said, ‘Let’s just go visit the swim coach and the pharmacy program,’ the pharmacy major remembers.

“Division I swim programs are just notorious for being demanding on your time but it wasn’t that way here, and the dean of pharmacy was just extremely warming.

Deans at other pharmacy schools I visited said ‘It’s a tough program; we’ll see if you get in. “[Then-]Dean [Brian] Kaatz said, ‘We’d love to have you here.’ By the time I went >> FALL 2009

17

WOMEN’S

SPORTS HISTORY Alex Hoffman wears the crown as Miss South Dakota 2008 but she has also earned crowns in the pool, setting six individual and four relay records in her freshman year.

>> home, I knew this was where I wanted to be. The opportunity to do both [swimming and pharmacy] is what hit home with me.

Coming out here is a completely different lifestyle. Out here everyone is just so welcoming,” Onisk says.

That includes the swimmers on the other teams.

Surrounded by talent And the athletes on the SDSU swim team are more athletic than they ever have been.

“My freshman year (2005-06) I came in without much competition” in practice, Onisk says. “Each year, the level of girls has progressed. This year, timewise, it is very competitive. Coaches, timewise, had so many girls they could put in relays.”

A look at the women’s record book bears that out. All the records were set in 2008 or 2009, most in the current season.

From pool to pageant All but a couple of the 2007-08 marks still on the books belong to Alex Hoffman, who took this season off to reign as Miss South Dakota and compete in the Miss America contest. While Hoffman can impress both inside and outside of the pool, Erickson describes her as “one of the hardest trainers I’ve had.

“She’s one of those that just gives 100 percent every lap, every yard. When you do that, you’re going to get better.”

Hoffman, of Eureka, spent one semester swimming at the University of Minnesota, transferred to SDSU, and sat out the second semester of her freshman year. As a sophomore in 2007-08, Hoffman set six individual and four relay records, Erickson reports.

“She’s got to be right up there [as one of the program’s all-time best swimmers]. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Mallory was right up there too,” the coach says.

Another star tanker from this year’s team is Katie Budahl of Mitchell, who spent two years swimming at the University of 18

RABBIT TRACKS

Minnesota. The junior set school marks in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and swam on a couple record-setting individual medley relay teams.

Budahl’s win at the Summit League Championships in the 200-yard breaststroke gave SDSU its first conference titlist since Diane Kelsey in 1985.

Junior Christina Gerometta of Farmington Hills, Michigan, rewrote the freestyle record book by setting school marks in the 200-, 500-, 1,000-, and 1,650-yard freestyle at the conference meet at Rochester, Michigan, which is the home to ten-time league champion Oakland and located near Detroit.

That was the only meet that Kenefick saw this season.

A following develops However, she notes that many of the parents had been to other meets and knew Jackrabbits not a part of their family. “Now they have a huge fan base. I’d say half of the kids had parents there. These people traveled huge distances—Connecticut, Alaska, Colorado—and then stayed in Michigan for three nights.

“We never had that kind of following.”

Of course, those teams were traveling to Kearney, Nebraska, and Moorhead, Minnesota.

From the travel, to the locker rooms, to the scholarships, to the weight lifting, and to the training, it’s a different program; just the same coach and the same lasting impression.

“Everything has gone way beyond what I possibly could imagine,” Onisk declares.

BASKETBALL Beyond myriad achievements lies development of individuals Clearly, in recent years no SDSU athletic program, men or women, has had more success than the women’s basketball team.

A short checklist: • Qualifying for the NCAA Division I national tournament in 2009, its first year of eligibility, and winning a game.

• Tying the school record for wins in a season (thirty-two and three in 2008-09) and going undefeated (fourteen wins) at Frost Arena for the first time in school history.

• Gaining national recognition in Division I polls, reaching as high as fourteenth in the USA Today/ESPN poll March 3, 2009.

• Winning the 2003 Division II national title with a school record thirty-two wins versus three losses.

• Posting winning seasons every year since 1986-87, including five years while transitioning into Division I. • Earning back-to-back appearances in the National Invitational Tournament, reaching the semifinals in 2007.

• Seeing three players—Melissa Pater, Megan Vogel, and Andrea Verdegan—make the rosters of European professional teams.

At the start of this decade, no one could have imagined that the program would go from being a solid squad that battled the

North Dakota schools for supremacy in the North Central Conference to a prominent team on the national Division I scene.

Wins over Big Ten programs like Minnesota and Wisconsin draw a smile, but no longer surprise State fans.

Fan support of women’s basketball is at an all-time high. In fact, in fourteen games in 2008-09 the women averaged 2,803, compared to 2,487 for the men and 2,343 during last year’s record-setting season. In its national title season, the Jacks averaged 2,693 per game.

Pater ’03

Verdegan ’08

Vogel ’07

Fan support predates current success Certainly, there’s nothing like a championship to bring out the fans, but SDSU has had strong support for years.

The “Back of the Bus” group is a fan support network of about 100 that charters buses to select games, awards scholarships, conducts raffles, hosts a steak fry for the basketball teams in the spring, and a watermelon feed for the soccer, cross country, and football teams in the fall.

“The fun part is getting to know the parents of the players. They really let you know how much they appreciate you being there and supporting the kids,” member Sharon Anderegg said in a 2002 alumni magazine article.

In 1993, during Christmas break, Darwin and Jeanne Longieliere came up with the idea of inviting the seniors on the women’s basketball team to their home for dinner. It

RIGHT: Andrea Verdegan started at guard for three seasons and ranked in the top ten for career marks in steals, assists, and three-pointers. After graduation she signed to play ball in The Netherlands.

“I’M JUST FORTUNATE TO BRING OUT A GIFT THAT WOULD HAVE NEVER BLOSSOMED” WITHOUT ATHLETICS. CARLEEN (ROSE) HOLM, ’93

was a big success so the following year they invited the entire team over for a meal between Christmas and New Year’s and continued the practice for about a decade.

They also are members of “The BallHogs,” a small fund-raising group that awards two scholarships every year, one in men’s basketball and one in women’s basketball.

Rose remembers rivals, road trips Carleen (Rose) Holm, who played 1990-93, remembers, “Brookings has always been good supporters.”

Some of the best supporters for the women’s program were the men’s players, and vice versa. “They’d really pull for each other.

They became friends, no doubt about it,” says Nancy Neiber, coach of the women’s basketball team from 1985 to 2000.

Holm notes, “We went on the same bus as the men” with the men in the back and the women up front.

“I met my husband [Scott] through that,” she says. Her career included a trip to Fargo, North Dakota, for an NCAA Division II Regional Tournament game against North

Dakota State, a team that had the Jacks’ number throughout Holm’s career. NDSU won 92-58, the Bison’s seventh win in as many games against State in Holm’s career.

NDSU Coach Amy Ruley “had it rolling then, just like Aaron [Johnston] has it now,” Neiber says.

Titles and testimonials Yes, times do change.

By the national championship season (2002-03), SDSU went from occasionally picking off the Bison to beating them all three times by a total of fifty-five points. It was the other North Holm ’93 Dakota school that was the Jacks biggest nemesis that year.

UND beat SDSU two of their four meetings, including a 90-87 win during the league tournament championship.

But State gained revenge in the North Central Regional semifinals and beat conference foe South Dakota to advance to the Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Missouri. There, SDSU used Stacie Cizek’s last-second threepointer to force overtime in the semifinals and advance over Bentley.

In the title game, the fourth-ranked Jacks never gave Northern Kentucky a chance, jumping to a 32-17 halftime lead en route to a 65-50 win.

That remains the only national championship in the forty-two-year history of the women’s basketball program, and with SDSU now playing Division I, the odds of another title are even smaller. But those who watched NDSU regularly hammer the Jacks didn’t envision that first crown.

But beyond the trophies, records, and rankings, there are the athletes.

“I look at my personality,” Holm says.

“What would I have done? Maybe been in plays. I had this ability from my mom. I did better in school because of athletics. It helped me be a better person all around.

“I’m just fortunate to be able to bring out a gift that would have never blossomed” without athletics.

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SPORTS HISTORY

SOCCER NCAA tourney upset ends running joke Comparisons are often tricky, especially if you’ve got apples and oranges, or soccer balls and basketballs.

In the fall, SDSU’s soccer program arrived on the national scene with a first-round win in the NCAA Regional Tournament in Minneapolis. It became the second SDSU team to make a national splash. The women’s basketball team has been there for three years now.

But here’s where we get into apples and oranges.

“It’s a difficult thing when you start to compare us with other programs,” soccer coach Lang Wedemeyer says. “The women’s basketball had won a Division II national tournament. We hadn’t even gotten close.

They had decades of history. I think it’s hard to compare what we’ve done in nine years.”

Nine years is the total history of SDSU soccer.

Considering Wedemeyer was building an expansion team without the benefit of an expansion draft, SDSU fared fairly well in Division II play. But as the school stepped out of the North Central Conference and into Division I play around the nation, it had to deal with the “South Dakota” putdown.

“Nobody has taken South Dakota State seriously in many sports,” says Wedemeyer.

That was still the case when he took his 14-4-1 squad to face Colorado for the November 14, 2008, NCAA tournament match in Minneapolis. Wedemeyer reports, “There were all sorts of jokes in the press box about how we were going to get killed and about our mascot.

“It was all kind of a running joke until it was clear we were going to win,” which SDSU did 1-0.

That win over Colorado, which had been ranked as high as eleven and never lower than fifteen, was definitely the apex of the program’s history, Wedemeyer says. That is especially true considering that the Jackrabbits weren’t even ranked in their region.

“They had us listed in the wrong region for almost the whole season,” he says. “I caught the disparity between two different polls [Great Lakes and North Central] toward the 20

RABBIT TRACKS

end of the season. It took me two weeks to get it sorted out. In the last poll we received votes in our region.

“In the final national poll we received votes for a top twenty-five ranking. Within the span of a week we went from receiving votes in the regional poll to receiving votes in the national poll,” Wedemeyer recalls.

The affect of an NCAA tournament win remains to be seen.

“We hope it will transfer to more excitement, more fans coming to the games, recruiting a higher level student-athlete,” Wedemeyer says. “In the short term, it gives credibility to the hard work we’ve been putting into the program. Credit goes to the administration for stepping forward and saying ‘Yes, we can compete at the Division I level.’”

Credit also goes to those who actually did compete at the Division I level.

Goalie Erin Miller became the program’s first all-American in 2003. Originally from Sioux Falls, she transferred to State for her senior season to be with her fiancé after playing her first three years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“As soon as we knew we were in The Summit League, we started to set goals that we were going to win the conference and win the tournament. [Team captain] Kelly Larsen really led the charge and the belief that we could accomplish these great goals.

“Our confidence grew as the season progressed. The way we finished last year was so positive, winning a bunch of games on the road, where we finished in the Summit League, we knew we could compete,” Wedemeyer says.

And compete they did, winning nonconference games against Iowa, Iowa State, and Drake.

“When we started to win those games, then the belief just really blossomed and nothing could get in our way,” Wedemeyer says of his momentum. SDSU lost only one conference match and made that up by beating Oakland (Michigan) in the Summit League Championship.

It was the second time in three years that SDSU won a tournament championship.

(SDSU wasn’t eligible for the Summit title in 2007.)

In 2006, SDSU won the United Soccer Conference championship, which drew eight independent and Division I transition teams to Washington, D.C. In the title game, SDSU beat NDSU 1-0 to avenge an earlier loss to the Bison, Wedemeyer recalls.

Highlights in earlier years: • 2005 — Playing almost an entire Division I schedule with no seniors and gaining three wins over Division I schools.

“We were often starting eight, sometimes nine, freshmen. They were naïve and a little bit immature in their play, but that experience paid off ” this season, Wedemeyer says.

• 2004– Playing the first Division I game in South Dakota State history, losing 2-0 to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and recording the first win against a Division I school, a 2-0 win versus Western Illinois. The game included Heather Hill scoring the program’s first goal against a Division I school.

• 2003 — Gaining its first all-American, Erin Miller, a goalie from Sioux Falls. She helped State have the fourth lowest goalsagainst average in the nation in Division II. • 2002 — Beating Minnesota StateMankato for the first time, a strong North Central Conference squad.

• 2001 — Being one of four teams to qualify out of the ten-team North Central Conference for the NCC tournament.

• 2002 — Scoring the first goal in school history, a shot by Jennifer Briggs against Northern State, and winning its first match— 8-0, September 3 against the University of Sioux Falls.

VOLLEYBALL Teams find national exposure in DI, DII eras SDSU women’s volleyball has been a picture of success since going 7-0 in its first season in 1966.

Certainly there have been some smudges in that picture during forty-three years of competition, but with an all-time record of 808-539 and nine all-America selections, the program can do plenty of boasting. That includes seven postseason appearances.

In 2001, Coach Andrew Palileo led the Jackrabbits to the national Division II championship game against Barry University.

But the program’s crowning achievement came in 2007, Palileo’s final season, when SDSU advanced to the NCAA Regional Tournament against the second-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. The team became the first squad in State history to advance to a Division I NCAA Tournament.

The DI pacesetter “It was great to be part of the first team to do it,” says Kristina Martin, a right-side hitter on the team.

“I felt honored to be one of the teams chosen to do it,” adds Martin, who finished with a school record 1,765 kills in her four seasons.

As SDSU transitioned into full Division I membership, the University selected the volleyball and wrestling teams as the nonrevenue sports to be allowed a two-year jump on other Jackrabbit teams in being Kristina Martin eligible for postseason play.

The squad was well aware of the significance of the accomplishment, teammate Mackenzie Osadchuk says.

“Coach had said if you make it, you’ll be the first Division I team in the whole state to make it to the national tournament. We wanted to leave our mark on SDSU and the whole state,” recalls Osadchuk, a May 2008 interior design graduate.

And indeed the Jacks did, winning both The Summit League regular season and conference titles for the first time en route to the historic trip to the NCAA championship event.

Jackrabbits Melia Iwamoto (1), Amy Anderson (7), and Kristina Martin (4) huddle with teammates in the final home match during the 2007 season. The team won the conference title and became the first State team to advance to an NCAA Division I Tournament.

Palileo was named the 2007 Summit League Coach of the Year and the squad broke or tied twenty-three team or individual records.

A year to remember Osadchuk, a middle blocker, says her career was “really kind of like a blur until my senior year and then I think I can tell you every moment. We came as a class, and we really grew close. From the get-go we thought our senior year was going to be really good.

“We were ranked third [in the league] in the first preseason poll. and we knew that wasn’t right. We knew we could be No. 1 if we worked hard.”

That they did, as well as recover from an emotional blow when SDSU baseball player Kevin Morsching, the boyfriend of Martin, died in skateboarding accident just as the season started. The close-knit team all felt the pain. SDSU opened the year 3-3.

Martin missed five of the team’s first six matches. When she returned, the team regrouped and won twelve straight.

The Jacks faced more adversity when junior hitter Mackenzie Anger went out with an injury as the 15-3 Jacks began a six-match road trip in six different states. SDSU dropped five of those matches, but again rebounded and won nine straight.

Mission accomplished That streak included winning the regular season and league title games.

Osadchuk recalls trumping Western Illinois in four games in a road match in a “toe-to-toe battle on their senior night. We set ourselves up to be No. 1 in the tournament.

Then we beat Oral Roberts on our senior night” to be regular season champs.

“When we did that we were on a high for a week. We felt like we were on top of the world. To accomplish this goal felt so great,” she adds.

Martin, who spent a year directing volleyball operations at Washington State where Palileo now coaches, says after winning the regular season crown “we knew we could beat Mackenzie anyone [in the league Osadchuk tournament]. We just had to keep playing hard.”

SDSU waltzed by Western Illinois and then beat Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne in five games for the tournament title.

“To represent our school and show that we can compete with those other schools” in Division I volleyball was “a great experience,” notes Martin, who is now playing professionally in Finland.

Division II pacesetter That feeling is shared by Shauna (Sturm) Brockmann, who lead her team to the Division II national championship game in 2001. “It was truly a privilege to play for the Jacks and I still, to this day, feel grateful I was given the opportunity,” Brockmann says.

Her career was filled with highlights, individually and as a team.

Individually, she became the Jackrabbits first two-time all-American and still ranks >>

FALL 2009

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WOMEN’S

SPORTS HISTORY >> third all-time in career kills for SDSU as well as being in the top ten career hitting percentage and blocking assists. Her twelve blocks in a five-game match remains a school record.

As a team, SDSU reached the North Central Regional qualifying tournament each of her four seasons.

Beating the rival Bison But “the No. 1 memory would be beating NDSU [North Dakota State] in the regional championship to go to nationals. They had beaten us twice during the regular season.

We played up in Fargo on their court for the regional championship.

“Grethe [Bornhoft] and I were the only seniors. We decided we wanted to keep going.”

SDSU won in five games, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to close out with 30-27, 15-13 wins. “The whole five-game series was just incredible. It kind of gives you goose bumps thinking about it,” Brockmann says in an interview more than eight years later.

“We had prepared for [a national title run] the entire season. In a way, we knew we could” get past NDSU.

‘Match belongs to you’ “We knew we weren’t done. That was the single best match I’ve ever played in. I just remember the team all came together. During the final timeout, Coach Palileo looked at us

and said, ‘Grethe [Bornhoft] and Shauna, this match belongs to you.’ We kept saying we just have to believe,” Brockmann says.

Right before the final point against NDSU, “I was in the front row with Angie Rime and Kelly Hoemann. We just looked at each other and said ‘We’re going to beat these guys,’” Brockmann says.

While some parts of her volleyball career “feels like forever ago, I remember this like it was yesterday. Somebody on their back row hit an overpass and it was coming to me. I killed it and we won,” Brockmann says of the match that sent a faithful following into a frenzy and her team to Allendale, Michigan, for the Elite Eight.

It was a season to remember Sanders, team rise above past struggles to new heights Nothing motivates like the knowledge you’re down to your last chance.

“I played my senior year knowing this is it, there was no tomorrow. This was my chance to leave a mark,” recalls Arika Sanders, a 1998 graphic design graduate from Tracy, Minnesota, who lead SDSU to its first postseason NCAA volleyball tournament.

“That filtered down through the whole team and we wanted to let people know SDSU volleyball was a force to be reckoned with,” she added.

Indeed the team was. The Jackrabbits finished 26-9, beating Augustana in its first match at the North Central Regional Tournament in Sioux Falls, and then losing to a University of Nebraska-Omaha team that finished fifth in the nation in Division II competition.

Overcoming the past SDSU’s 1997 emergence mirrored the development of Sanders.

In her freshman year (1994), SDSU finished 18-15 and the next season was 17-16. By her junior year, State was a respectable 21-14.

But coming into the 1997 season, “It wasn’t 22

RABBIT TRACKS

A marked change

like we expected to get anywhere or do anything phenomenal. In the past it had been such a difficulty to get it going or keeping it going,” Sander says.

Sanders had her own struggles in the past, particularly in regards to getting playing time and in her relationship with Coach Mary Byrne.

Although Sanders played in almost every game during her first three seasons, she didn’t start until her senior year. “From the time I was freshman it was just such a frustrating battle for me to sit on the sidelines. I would come in and serve out the game and I still wouldn’t get to start.

“It was frustrating for my family too. My Dad stopped coming to the matches early in the career,” Sanders says.

So as the 1997 season approached, she had no lofty all-American goals for herself.

“My biggest goal “Being a second was to be able to team all-American play. My goal was was something don’t look back and I never dreamed do everything I can and there I was to keep my spot. living it.”

“It was after Arika Sanders battling through from my freshman season to my senior year, the pieces fell into place. We had a lot of laughs, both on the court and afterwards. It was one of those years when Mary [Byrne] just did a wonderful job of bringing us together as a group, knowing who played best together,” Sanders says.

Those players included Rose Ebnet, a first-team all-American in 2000 and a freshman in 1997; Roxie Rath, a first-team all-American in 1998; and Julie Nihart, who graduated as State’s set assist leader.

Sanders was determined not to let team or individual struggles of past seasons taint her senior year.

“Midway through our year we started looking more at the scores and our record and thinking this could be it. But being superstitious, we didn’t want to jinx anything” by talking about the possibility of becoming

Hellickson invests in program he’s monitored for decades

Closing a career There, SDSU avenged a regular season defeat to Truman State and whipped Grand Valley State 3-0.

At that point, “Grethe and I looked at each other and we said we did it. We made it as far as we could. We just wanted to give it everything we had for the championship.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.

Barry was pretty good,” Brockmann says.

Barry cruised to the national title 30-19, 30-21, 30-25.

Her younger teammates went on to another regional tournament (the last the team would have until the 2007 season) and Brockman, a consumer affairs graduate, began a career with Dacotah Bank in Aberdeen.

DAVE GRAVES

Whoever first said “familiarity breeds contempt” didn’t know about engineering Professor Mylo Hellickson and his thirty-two-year relationship with the SDSU Athletic Department.

Ever the multitasker, when it comes to Jackrabbit athletics Hellickson is a fan, a watchdog, and a benefactor.

Hellickson’s first sporting interest was as a participant. He played baseball at North Dakota State University and coached local baseball teams near his western North Dakota hometown of Medora.

Hellickson and his wife came to Brookings in 1969 when he started teaching in the Department of Agricultural Engineering. When Title IX was signed in 1972, Hellickson was asked to chair a study that looked at where SDSU was in relation to compliance with the law and where it should be. Hellickson says the study became a model that was used nationwide.

the first team to reach NCAA postseason volleyball play.

Faculty representative since 1977

Emotional memories

After the study, President Sherwood Berg asked Hellickson in 1977 to be the faculty athletics representative. According to Hellickson, the job requires representing faculty interests to the NCAA and the athletic conference.

“It’s their responsibility to assure that the ‘student’ part of ‘student-athlete’ is front and center,” Hellickson explains.

As an example, faculty representatives will look at the missed class policy and athletic schedules to gauge how much time athletes will be away from the their studies.

Hellickson says it’s particularly tough to manage the baseball schedule because of all the bad weather in the spring.

Hellickson also serves on a compliance team at SDSU representing the NCAA’s interest in external control of athletic departments.

Early in the season, her dad returned to the stands. “To me that was just a big one,” she says, still choked by emotion of the moment eleven years ago.

The season didn’t end the way the team hoped, ‘but we also looked at where we had come from our freshman year. I remember seeing my high school coaches and my family in the stands. It made me feel so proud, so blessed,” Sanders says of her final match.

In the postseason, Sanders became SDSU’s first volleyball all-American, earning second team honors.

She and her boyfriend flew to Los Angeles and attended the Division II national championships, where the allAmerican awards were presented. Sanders recalls, “I sat there thinking ‘Man, we could have been there if this play or that play had gone differently.’

“It was really cool to just be acknowledged. Being a second team all-American was something I never dreamed of and there I was living it.”

Editor’s note: Sanders now lives the life of an independent graphic designer, working out of her Brookings home, where she also cares for her son.

DAVE GRAVES

Rules, rules, rules Hellickson explains that the compliance team may check whether rules have been followed regarding phone records or official visits. They may critique the student-athlete handbook, checking to see if there’s information about access to mentoring, help with learning disabilities, or resources for minority athletes.

“If we find a violation, it automatically goes to the NCAA,” Hellickson says, noting that they have not found any compliance violations at SDSU.

Mylo and Lillian Hellickson take a break from cheering on the SDSU women’s basketball team at the NCAA tournament in Lubbock, Texas, in March long enough to get their picture taken.

As a long-time observer of intercollegiate athletics, Hellickson says he has noted that NCAA violations are usually a matter of “who’s paying attention.”

Hellickson’s long service in athletics made him the natural choice to serve as interim athletic director from mid-January through May during the time between the retirement of Fred Oien and the hiring of Justin Sell.

Four-and-one-half month career Hellickson’s tenure as interim athletic director was short but fulfilling. “It was a great experience,” he says. “It taught me how hard people work to try to do it right.”

As an example he noted that while some student-athletes had midterm deficiencies, all teams met their academic performance rate standards by the end of the semester.

“It’s a credit to the coaches,” Hellickson says, “it’s a credit to how they recruit, and it’s a credit to the kids.”

Putting money where heart is Just as the switch to Division I has called for more oversight, it has also sparked an increase in scholarships. Since the switch, SDSU has gone from ninety-two athletic scholarships to 209, a jump from $800,000 to $2.5 million per year.

Hellickson and his wife Lillian, who is retired from SDSU, are also responsible for two endowed scholarships, one each for men’s and women’s basketball.

The Hellickson’s reasoning for their generosity is simple: “If you believe in it, support it.

DANA HESS FALL 2009

23

120YEARS SDSU observes anniversary of first athletic competition

The 2009-10 season marks a milestone in SDSU’s athletic history.

It was 120 years ago when the school first engaged in intercollegiate competition. In 1889, colleges from Brookings, Vermillion, Yankton, and Sioux Falls established the South Dakota Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Teams gathered in May of that year for contests in baseball, football, track and field, bicycle races, tennis, and a tug of war. Up until then, there were no coaches or organized teams.

Although coaches come and go, venues change, and uniforms evolve, the spirit of competition has remained constant in the years that followed those first athletic events.

With that in mind, let’s take a sneak look at how the fall season shapes up for the Jackrabbits in football, volleyball, soccer, and cross country.

FOOTBALL The Jacks, who opened the season with successive home wins against Georgia Southern in the Cereal Bowl and Indiana State in the Beef Bowl, will make a little history October 24 when they host Northern Iowa for Hobo Day. It marks the first time SDSU has entertained the Panthers for homecoming in a series that dates back to 1935 when Northern Iowa was known as Iowa Teachers College. They will meet for the forty-fourth time with most encounters in the old North Central Conference. Now both schools are in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

SDSU filled holes offensively with most of its defensive unit returning from a squad that finished 7-5 in 2008, including a 6-2 third-place mark in the Missouri Valley under head coach John Stiegelmeier, who ranks second in career wins with a 75-56 record.

The biggest gap on offense was finding a replacement for quarterback Ryan Berry, who set numerous career and single-season records in his senior season. Senior Ryan Crawford, the only one of four candidates to have attempted a pass in a Jacks’ uniform, got the starting nod.

Senior Kyle Minett headlines the backfield after rushing for 1,289 yards last year, while senior Glen Fox tops the 24

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FALL

receiving corps after catching sixty-six balls for 792 yards and ten touchdowns a year ago.

Defensively, the Jacks returned their topeight tacklers, including senior defensive end Danny Batten, who earned allconference honors last year after tallying seventy-five tackles and eight quarterback sacks. All three linebackers are back, led by senior Jimmy Rogers, who has been the Jacks’ top tackler the past two seasons registering ninety-three in 2008.

SDSU’s last home game is November 7 against Southern Illinois, followed by road games at the University of Minnesota and Western Illinois. The Jacks will be looking for their first win against Minnesota, a school they haven’t played since 1933. The Golden Gophers of the Big Ten Çonference hold a 6-0 series lead.

PREVIEW

VOLLEYBALL Nana Allison-Brewer began her second season as head coach after posting a 10-17 mark in her first year.

After a 1-12 start against a difficult nonconference schedule, SDSU came on strong winning nine of the final fourteen matches for an 8-8 Summit League finish.

The Jacks have only two starters back, but that’s offset by ten returning letterwinners. The biggest loss was outside hitter Mackenzie Angner, who tallied 504 kills in 2008 for the third most in league history. Her 5.09 kills per set was the second-best ratio in NCAA Division I. Leading the charge this year will be Ellyce Youngren and Kelli Fiegen. The sophomores ranked second and third in kills in 2008 with 256 and 191, respectively.

Junior Ashley Kathol notched 103 kills, while junior setter Nicole Peters delivered the second-most set assists with 97.

The Summit League Tournament is November 21-22 in Fargo, North Dakota.

SOCCER When SDSU opened Summit League play October 2 at Centenary College, the Jacks had already played a demanding nonconference schedule.

SDSU faced three Missouri Valley schools (Northern Iowa, Drake, Creighton), two from the Big Ten (Minnesota, Iowa), and two from the Big 12 (Kansas, Iowa State). Kansas and Minnesota advanced to the NCAA College Cup in 2008.

The Jacks, who host The Summit League Tournament November 6-8 at Fishback Soccer Park, return good experience with four starters back: senior Jessica Heine; junior Danni Healy; sophomores Steph Peterson and Kelsey Ferguson.

SDSU was 15-5-1 last season earning a share of the league title. The Jacks won the league tournament to automatically qualify for their first-ever trip to the NCAA College Cup. They defeated Colorado in the first-round for SDSU’s first NCAA postseason win.

Lang Wedemeyer, the program’s only soccer coach in its ten-year history, owns a career record of 78-72-17.

CROSS COUNTRY The SDSU women seek to defend their Summit League championship, while the Jackrabbit men look to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish when the league meet unfolds October 31 in Cedar City, Utah.

KYLE JOHNSON

Follow Stig’s advice: make a difference.

There are many aspects of working in athletics that make it seem logical for coaches to break down film until the wee hours of the morning; to make fans scream until they lose their voices at athletic competitions; to consider a grass field a sanctuary; or for a student to find six friends, paint their bodies blue and line up in correct arrangement of G-O-J-A-C-K-S. Athletics provides a venue that individuals can strive to achieve greatness and an avenue that can teach its participants about life in general. In the words of Vince Lombardi, “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence.”

Jackrabbit student-athletes are extremely committed and—win or lose—will always strive for excellence while maintaining integrity and good sportsmanship. For that, we are blessed.

Someone recently asked me what is the most rewarding part of working in athletics. My answer: STUDENT-ATHLETES. They never cease to amaze and impress. There are many aphorisms that coaches use to motivate their teams on a daily basis.

Today, the one that sticks out is that of football Coach John Stiegelmeier: “Make a difference.” Knowingly or not, it’s exactly what our student-athletes do.

They make a difference on the court, field, course, or pool by pushing their teammates to become better and by giving it their all to compete at the highest level. They make the loyal Jackrabbits proud by preparing in the off-season and by continually stretching themselves to the limits. Win or lose, they are in it together and they make a difference.

They make a difference in the classroom. With an overall cumulative grade point average of 3.1, they have shown that academics are a priority and that “student” comes before the “athlete” as a Jackrabbit student-athlete. They help one another out while studying on road trips and balance the academic demands with the time commitments of being an athlete. Upon graduation, they make a difference.

They make a difference in the community by visiting hospitals and grade schools or by collecting coats for kids or shoes for those that are less fortunate. They serve food at soup kitchens, clean up parks, and get involved with a variety of other philanthropic efforts to help make a difference. They are able to have an impact on the community that is so generous to us; one that supports the University both financially and in spirit.

They make a difference by impacting others. With a smile, with a compliment, with a helping hand or by serving as a role model they make a difference. They play college athletics the way it’s supposed to be played—the love of the game and with an emphasis on sportsmanship and ethical conduct.

Having said this, there is another part of my job that I treasure almost as much as working for and with student-athletes.

That part is listening to the stories of past administrators, donors, and fans that have been associated with SDSU for so many years. Tradition-rich, black-and-white photos accompany the stories they share of games in the Barn or of student-athletes that left for the war.

The endless stories are wholesome and heartfelt, but they all seem to have a common theme. They’ll start with where the student-athlete came from and what they accomplished during their time at SDSU and then explain where they are now, and most notably, how good of a person he/she is or was—how they made a difference.

Yes, we’re lucky. To associate with such a great University and to know how many great people came before us to establish the tradition. We’re lucky to witness the great memories that go along with each new day and each new season, and to see the vision of what South Dakota State can and will be. We are lucky to have a chance to continue building that program and being part of something special.

As Stig says, “Make a difference.”

Thanks for all you continue to do for the yellow and blue.

Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks.

ikeBurgs M

ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497

NON-PROFIT US POSTAGE PAID bROOKINGS SD PERmIT 24

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

AbOvE: The south entrances of Frost Arena were rebuilt during the 2008-09 school year. The concrete steps had deteriorated on the twenty-six-year-old gym so Dean Kattelmann, director of facilities and services at SDSU, designed upgraded entrances. Thousands of fans will be pouring into the gym for contests this fall. For ticket information, call 688-5422 or 1-866-GO-JACKS.